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

这个项目首次系统地分析了概率数学在非洲奴隶贸易中的应用。它为探索一百多年来海上保险业与人类跨大西洋贸易之间的关系提供了基础研究。通过这项工作，该项目追踪了跨大西洋奴隶贸易的完整价值循环——从奴隶在非洲海岸出售的价格，到他们作为货物投保的价格，再到他们被拍卖的价格，再到他们后来作为工人投保或出租的价格。这项研究对重新唤起人们对奴役在塑造会计、风险管理和精算科学技术中所扮演的角色的兴趣做出了重大贡献。这些数据将用于扩大“疲倦灵魂宝库”，这是一个将被奴役者作为财产投保的政策公共数据库。这项研究由三个活动组成，产生两个结果。首先，它对18世纪伦敦已知个人承销商的剩余记录进行了系统的范围审查和定性编码。其次，它对与被奴役的非洲人贸易有关的以保险为重点的档案收藏进行了系统的范围审查和定性编码，并对与保险有关的记录以奴隶制为重点的档案收藏进行了重新评估。第三，对西欧奴隶贸易与保险的关系以及奴隶生产的货物返回欧洲的保险进行了初步的档案研究。这项研究产生了传统的学术成果，包括文章和一本书。通过我们的方法创新、我们的出版物和我们的数据库，我们将为学者和公众提供基础材料，以更好地理解仍在使用的风险评估技术和金融工具的作用，这些技术和金融工具起源于跨大西洋奴隶贸易。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.