Preliminary Guide to the Slavery Era Insurance Documents
Preliminary arrangement and description by Carmelita Pickett; latest revision by D. Tambo
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
© 2011
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Preliminary Guide to the Slavery Era Insurance Documents, ca. 1846-1860, 2001-2002
Collection number: Wyles Mss 97
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
- Processed by:
- Preliminary arrangement and description by Carmelita Pickett; latest revision by D. Tambo
- Date Completed:
- Aug. 15, 2008
- Encoded by:
- A. Demeter
© 2011 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Slavery Era Insurance Documents
Dates: ca. 1846-1860, 2001-2002
Collection number: Wyles Mss 97
Collection Size:
0.9 linear feet
(3 oversize boxes).
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections
Abstract: Photocopies of documents collected by the State of California Insurance Department in pursuance of California Code Regulations,
Title 10, Sections 2293-2398, which required insurance companies to provide documentation about insurance polices from the
slavery era which coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves.
Physical location: Del Sur Oversize.
Languages:
English
Access Restrictions
None.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Preferred Citation
Slavery Era Insurance Documents. Wyles Mss 97. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Acquisition Information
Donation from California Department of Insurance, May 2002.
History
In August 2000 the California legislature found that "Insurance polices from the slavery era had been discovered in the archives
of several insurance companies, documenting insurance coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves, issued
by a predecessor insurance firm. These documents provide the first evidence of ill-gotten profits from slavery, which profits
in part capitalized insurers whose successors remain in existence today." SB2199 Sec. 1 (a). Governor Davis signed the bill
(SB2199) in to law, September 2000. This legislation had been introduced by then Senator Tom Hayden in May 2000. The statute
took effect January 1, 2001. California Code Regulations, Title 10, Sections 2293-2398 implement the statute.
The regulation required carriers to submit the requested data by October 13, 2001, the effective date of the regulation. Reports
were to be provided on paper with names of slaves and slaveholders to be provided to the Department in an electronic format
as well. A vast majority of responses indicated, in some fashion, that as the insurer it had been incorporated sometime after
the end of the defined slavery era and since there was no predecessor company that existed during the applicable period, that
the insurer had nothing to report.
The Department also received a few responses indicating that the company or its predecessor was doing business during the
applicable period, and conducted a thorough search of its archives and records, but was unable to find responsive information
or documents. A variation of this response was that the insurer routinely destroyed documents beyond a certain age and therefore,
had no way of knowing whether or not a slavery era predecessor existed. A permutation of this response was that a slavery
era predecessor existed, as evidenced by other corporate archives, but that responsive documents had been lost or destroyed.
The insurers listed in the report and register, were able to locate and provide the California Department of Insurance, information
and/or records responsive to the regulation. To date, the compliance response rate is approximately 92%. The department is
continuously in contact with insurers that have either not responded or that have not responded completely.
Major portions of text from: California Department of Insurance. Slavery Era Insurance Registry Report to the California Legislature.
(May 2002). This document is available at:
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/docs/FS-SEIR.htm [Accessed: 7/31/02].
Scope and Content of Collection
The Slavery Era Documents are photocopies donated by the California Department of Insurance. The documents are arranged in
the following two series:
Arrangement
Series I: Slavery Era Insurance Registry. This series contains one folder, which includes the official report (important when interpreting insurer correspondence)
and the Slavery Era Insurance Registry. The registry was created by the California Department of Insurance, from data reported
by insurance companies in compliance with SB 2199. The Slavery Era Insurance Registry contains the slave registry and legislation
passed by the California Legislature. This legislation establishes guidelines for reporting any records of slave insurance
policies issued by any insurance company and its predecessor during the slavery era (defined as prior to 1865). The series
also contains a donation letter listing other California institutions and state depositories that received the Slavery Era
documents.
Series II: Insurance Companies. This series includes the insurers responses to California Code of Regulations, Title 10, Section 2394, requiring all insurance
companies doing business in California on or after January 1, 200l to submit reports documenting their activity during the
slavery era. This series is arranged alphabetically by insurance company names. The container list for this series includes
dates (ca. 1800s) of original document copies from insurers and their most current correspondence (2000-2001) with the California
Department of Insurance. These documents include correspondence, insurance ledgers, slave premiums, slave policies, minutes
from board meetings and some copies of book texts that provide details of insurer policies during the slavery era. Some insurance
companies did not write slave policies and had no data to report, while other companies like ACE USA, AIG, AETNA, Manhattan
Life, New York Life, Penn Mutual, and Royal & Sun Alliance include more detailed accounts of their companies past participation
or non participation of insuring slaves. AETNA submitted copies of seven slave policies that had been written during the late
1840s to 1860. New York Life submitted archival records from its predecessor Nautilus Insurance Company, which includes copies
from three separate ledgers, copies from Index of Applicants, and copies from its Death Claim Book, and the following exhibits:
Exhibits A-1, Exhibit A-3, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C.
Additions to the collection are anticipated.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Shepard, Isaac F. (Isaac Fitzgerald), 1816-1889
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--African Americans.
Related Materials
- Legislation
- Official California Legislative Information website:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/ , maintained by Legislative Counsel. Search this website for more details on SB 2199 and SB 1737 (mandates that the University
of California sponsor research colloquia to explore and identify the issues related to the economic legacy of slavery). This
legislative database provides bill history, text, votes, and analyses. When searching for SB 2199 and SB 1737 select sessions
held during 1999 to 2000.
- Slavery Era Registry
-
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/docs/FS-SEIR.htm
Includes official report, Slavery Era Insurance Registry, and locations of public viewing rooms in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
- Slavery Era Document Locations
- Copies of the Slavery Era Insurance documents from the California Department of Insurance also are available at: UC- Berkeley,
UC-Davis, UC-Los Angeles, UC- San Diego and UC- Santa Cruz, Alameda Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library, San Francisco
Public Library, Santa Clara, San Diego and the California State Library in Sacramento.
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
-
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. CD-ROM. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. A comprehensive database that provides information about the 27,233
slave voyages to the New World between 1527 and 1866. This resource is available in UCSB's Davidson Library with the following
call number: HT 1322.T656 1999.
Series 1:
Slavery Era Insurance Registry
Scope and Content Note
The official report offers definitions, statutes, and descriptions of data received from various insurance companies that
are important when interpreting the insurers' correspondence between the California Department of Insurance.
Box 1: 1
Slavery Era Insurance Registry,
2002
Series 2:
Insurance Companies
Scope and Content Note
The dates include original document copies from insurers and their correspondence with the California Department of Insurance.
Box 1: 2
AETNA,
1854-1858,
1860,
2001-2002
Box 1: 2
American General Assurance,
2002
Box 1: 2
Atlantic Mutual Companies,
2001
Box 1: 3
Factory Mutual Insurance Company (FM Global),
2001
Box 1: 3
General Reinsurance Corporation,
2001
Box 1: 3
Guardian Life Insurance,
2002
Box 1: 3
Hartford Fire Insurance Company,
2001
Box 1: 3
Manhattan Life Insurance Company,
1854,
2001
Box 1: 3
Mass Mutual Financial Group,
2001-2002
Box 1: 3
MONY Life Insurance Company,
2001
Box 1: 3
National Life of Vermont,
2001
Box 1: 4
Nautilus Insurance Company, n.d. (see also New York Life, Box 3 Folder 6)
Box 1: 5
Nautilus Insurance Company, Index of Applicants, n.d.
Box 1: 6
Nautilus Insurance Company, Ledger 1, n.d.
Box 2: 1-5
Nautilus Insurance Company, Ledger 1, n.d.
Box 2: 6-7
Nautilus Insurance Company, Ledger 2, n.d.
Box 3: 1-2
Nautilus Insurance Company, Ledger 2, n.d.
Box 3: 3-5
Nautilus Insurance Company, Ledger 3, n.d.
Box 3: 6
New York Life,
1847-1848,
2001
Box 3: 7
Phoenix Life Mutual Insurance Company,
2001
Box 3: 7
Providence Washington,
2001
Box 3: 7
Royal & Sun Alliance,
2001
Box 3: 7
Traveler's Casualty & Surety Company,
2001
Box 3: 8
New York Life Insurance Company - possible slave policies [addition to collection, Aug. 2002],
1846-1848,
2002
