Insuring Slavery: Actuarial Science and the Underwriting of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century

This project provides the first systematic analysis of the application of probabilistic mathematics to the trade in enslaved Africans. It offers foundational research for an exploration of the relationship between the marine insurance industry and the trans-Atlantic trade in human beings across more than one hundred years. Through this work, the project traces a complete circuit of value across the trans-Atlantic slave trade—from the price for which enslaved persons were sold on the coast of Africa, to the price for which they were insured as cargo, to the price for which they were auctioned, to the price for which they were later insured or rented out as a workers. This research contributes significantly to the resurgent interest in making sense of the role enslavement played in shaping techniques of accounting, risk management, and actuarial science. Data will be used to expand the Treasury of Weary Souls, a public database of policies that insured enslaved persons as property.

This research is comprised of three activities that produce two outcomes. First, it conducts a systematic scoping review and qualitative coding of the remaining records of known individual underwriters in London during the eighteenth century. Second, it conducts a systematic scoping review and qualitative coding of insurance-focused archival collections for records pertaining to the trade of enslaved Africans as well as a reevaluation of slavery-focused archival collections for records pertaining to insurance. Third, it conducts preliminary archival research on the relationship between the slave trade and insurance in western Europe as well as the insurance of slave-produced goods returning to Europe. This research produces traditional scholarly output including articles and a book. Through our methodological innovations, our publications, and our database, we will generate foundational material for scholars and the public to better understand the role of still-in-use risk-assessment techniques and financial instruments that have their roots in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.