Insurance companies in Maryland must compile information on policies
sold to slave owners before 1865 under a new state law. The reports
will be kept in an archive at the University of Maryland School of Law
in Baltimore and published on the state Insurance Department Web site,
The Baltimore Sun reported. Students at the law school developed the
idea for the law.
Assemblywoman Lisa Gladden, a Baltimore Democrat who sponsored the bill, said that insuring owners against the death or illness of their slaves was "hugely profitable" for the companies. Now, she said, those records provide valuable data on the slave economy and genealogical information.
"As a genealogist and someone interested in my own history, this allows
me to look at records that perhaps are not public records and that are
held by insurance companies," she said.
Insurers did not oppose the measure.
You can read the full story at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.slavery16apr16,0,718952.story.
