“The first American life insurance enterprises can be traced back to the late colonial period. The Presbyterian Synods in Philadelphia and New York set up the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers in 1759; the Episcopalian ministers organized a similar fund in 1769.”
Sharon Ann Murphy, “Life Insurance in the United States through World War I,” EH.net, accessed October 9, 2022.
In the 1800s, enslavers began to insure the enslaved. They insured highly skilled workers who toiled in dangerous environments including but not limited to coal miners, blacksmiths, carpenters, railroad workers. A number of northern insurance companies including New York Life Insurance sold policies covering the enslaved.
Rachel L. Swarns. “Insurance Policies on Slaves: New York Life’s Complicated Past,” The New York Times, December 19, 2016, Page A1.
“Slave insurance involved a contract between a policy holder and an insurance company in which the insurer promised to pay a sum of money upon the death of an enslaved person. In the three decades leading up to the American Civil War (1861–1865), such policies became widespread in southern states.”
Sharon Ann Murphy, “Slave Insurance,” EncyclopediaVirginia, accessed October 9, 2022
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 
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