Aetna Acknowledges Issuing Slave Policies During 1850s, Offers Apology, Denies Reparations

From March 4, 2000 [HERE] In 2000 Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, head of the nonprofit Restitution Study Group of Hoboken, New Jersey, disclosed that from approximately 1853 to approximately 1860 Aetna had issued life insurance policies to slaveowners covering the lives of their slaves.

 Aetna, Inc., the nation’s largest health insurer, apologized Thursday for selling policies in the 1850s that reimbursed slave owners for financial losses when their slaves died. [includes rush transcript]

"Aetna has long acknowledged that for several years shortly after its founding in 1853 that the company may have insured the lives of slaves," said Aetna spokesman Fred Laberge. "We express our deep regret over any participation at all in this deplorable practice."

Aetna’s public apology was prompted by an inquiry from activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, who earlier this year contacted the Hartford-based company to seek an apology and reparations.

Aetna, which noted that the slave policies were legal before slavery was abolished, said it plans to make no reparations. "We have concluded that no further actions are required at this time," Laberge said. Aetna said its records show the company wrote no more than a dozen such policies to slave owners. The company said it previously acknowledged having written slave policies in a report prepared in 1956.