A new California State law slated to take effect on January 1, 2001 will compel insurers doing business in California to reveal to what extent they may have been involved in the slave trade. The so-called "Slave Insurance Bill" aims to force insurance companies to admit whether or not they insured slave holders� slaves in the past, and to what extent this was done. Supporters of this bill hope that it will lend weight to the movement to grant reparations to descendants of slaves, and more fully expose the origins of the wealth of many successful companies today.

The law was sponsored by Democratic Senator Tom Hayden of Los Angeles, a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the �60s and author of the Port Huron Statement in 1962, seen by many as being a key declaration of principles of the New Left of that era. The bill, as finally passed by the state Legislature, seeks no punishment against any corporations that may have had their hands in slavery. Rather, it seeks to simply get them to admit their role as insurers of slaves.

The original, undiluted bill contended that money paid by insurance companies to slave holders was owed to the family or to descendants of slaves. It would have called for government hearings to determine to what extent Black Americans were owed this back money. Unfortunately, the bill�s final version was stripped of these provisions.

Still, many are hailing the bill as a victory, if only partial. Civil War historian Eric Foner said the bill helps "direct attention to the centrality of slavery in American history."

Washington attorney Alexander Pires, who is currently trying to gather information to aid in a class action lawsuit to demand reparations for slavery, said the bill would help in such cases because it will make companies acknowledge complicity in the enslavement of Africans in the past.

"The more we hear about these things, the easier it�s going to be for plaintiffs to say: �Look, this is not a fairy tale, this is true,�" he told the Los Angeles Times in their December 11th edition.

Aetna Inc., the largest insurer in the United States, has admitted its role in insuring slaves in the 19th century. Other companies have predictably not been as quick to look into their records or admit responsibility. In fact, this law will probably be met with foot-dragging and evasion on a scale little seen before. Aetna was forced to admit it insured slaves when a Black woman in New York discovered slave insurance policies held on her ancestors had been issued by the firm. She called the corporation�s headquarters in Hartford, Conn., to seek an apology. Aetna did issue a public apology. But most agree that more must be done.

A single slave, when insured, was insured for as much as $30,000 of today�s U.S. dollars. The value of a slave was often determined after something akin to a medical exam took place.

"Generally, the buying of slave insurance would be preceded by a medical exam in the slave market," said Walter Johnson, a New York professor. "It would be a real complete, naked, invasive physical examination."

The slaves were judged and their value was affixed after factoring in such attributes as labor power, stamina, size, etc. "Slaves were big-time investments," Johnson adds.

The practice of insuring the lives of slaves led, later, to the modern practice of selling life insurance to people in general. Disability insurance, in which the productive power of workers is insured against disabling disasters that could relinquish their ability to work, is similar. Nevertheless, unlike these modern variants of slave insurance, the insurance policies issued by companies like Aetna were legally considered to cover productive property and not an actual human life. Slaves were insured in much the same way a farmer today might insure a tractor or other piece of equipment upon which his profitability depends.

Naturally, the insuring of slaves led to much insurance fraud in which sick or disabled slaves were killed off so that owners might collect on these policies. The Los Angeles Times mentions one such incident when the captain of a slave ship committed the equivalent of insurance fraud when he cast at least 200 slaves with cholera overboard, causing them to drown. He tried to collect insurance on the loss of these slaves, and a long court battle ensued.

Robert Hartwig, a spokesman for the insurance industry, bristles at the suggestion of insurance companies facing responsibility for their role in slavery. "If you want to cast a net of blame for slavery, you�re going to have to cast it over the entire 19th century economy and virtually every industry and company which can trace its roots back to the mid-1800s," he said. "The question is why now, why insurers, and does this nation need to tear open wounds which are still being healed today?"

Hartwig, a man obviously concerned with just reconciliation and not "tear[ing] open wounds"�and certainly not motivated at all by personal vested interests in the insurance industry�also claims most insurers that existed then have dissolved and thus no longer exist. However, it is more likely that larger firms like Aetna acquired smaller companies over the course of time.

As to "why now?" the answer is "why not now?" And as for tearing open wounds, it seems obvious the wounds are already there, open and bleeding angrily, and that one way to ensure they are healed permanently is to let the process of reparations take its course. Letting wounds heal, simply means covering things up and throwing them down the memory hole.

It is important that we begin to explore the complicity of corporate America in slavery in the same sense it is important to discover the role of corporations in Nazi slave labor schemes. Current lawsuits under way on behalf of imprisoned Jews and their families have highlighted the often sinister role played by such prominent companies as Krupp, Siemens, Bayer, Volkswagen, and even American companies like Ford. We should not be so selective in our indignation as to only feel outraged when foreign companies commit atrocities. We need to see to what extent the current American economy has been built upon an infrastructure of slave labor. We need to come to terms with the role the business community has historically played in profiting off others� misery and loss of liberty.

(Brian Oliver Sheppard is a writer, poet and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. He can be reached at [email protected])