New Illinois Law Could Assist Reparations Advocates

New Illinois Law Requiring Insurance Companies to Disclose Ties to Slavery Could Assist Reparations Advocates
Illinois has made it easier for the descendants of slaves to trace their ancestry, a move that not only could help connect African Americans to their past, but could aid in the fight for reparations. Illinois has become the second state in the nation to require insurance companies to publicize policies they or their predecessor companies took out to compensate slave owners for death or harm to their slaves before the Civil War. California passed a similar law in 2000. Slaves remained valuable economic commodities into the Civil War years, and insurers began selling life insurance to compensate owners for the loss of their human property. [more ]

• House Bill 2379, Slavery Era Policies, was passed by the Illinois legislature in 2003 and signed into law by Governor Rod Blagojevich on July 24, 2003.  The law was effective January 1, 2004.  The law is located in the insurance code at 215 ILCS 5/155.39. [text of the act ]
  
• The Act required any insurer licensed and doing business in Illinois to research and report to the Division of Insurance information regarding policies issued to slaveholders for death or damage to their slaves that the company wrote either directly or through a predecessor corporation during the slavery era.  Information specifically required by the Act includes the names of the slaves and the names of the slaveholders.  The Division of Insurance is required by the Act to make the names of any slaveholders or slaves described in those insurance records available to the public and the General Assembly.
  
• The Illinois Slavery Era Insurance Policies Registry  [more ]
  

So Who's On the Slavery List?

• Aetna Life Insurance Company reported 24 slavery policies.
  
• New York Life Insurance Company (predecessor, Nautilus Insurance Company) reported 485 slavery policies.
• United States Life Insurance Company in New York City reported at least 174 slavery policies. [full report ]