Today New York Life is a top three American insurance company. But back in 1846, the then Nautilus Insurance Company needed a way to turn a profit, and fast!
They placed their bets on the most precious commodity the South had to offer. The results were tragic for our enslaved ancestors.
For three fiscal years, the insurance company encouraged slaveholders to take out policies on their “human property.”
This only made a bad situation worse.
Now that owners could collect a payout when their slaves died, there was even less reason to protect the safety, health, and physical limitations of their captives. Plus it institutionalized a racial hierarchy, since policy proceeds were always greater for white deceased policyholders.
And unsurprisingly, New York Life isn’t the only company that thrived thanks to such deals.
Some cities now require corporations to turn over any records revealing connections to American slavery, but the minuscule philanthropic donations and apologetic press releases that inevitably follow are barely an initial step in making amends.
These institutions knowingly financed the continued abuse and expendable treatment of our people while incentivizing the cruel labor practices that kept the system of chattel slavery alive and profitable.
Justice would be institutions that benefited from the value of our labor and lives earnestly cutting reparations checks ASAP.