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(215 ILCS 5/155.41)
Sec. 155.41. Slave era policies.
(a) The General Assembly finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Insurance policies from the slavery era have been |
| discovered in the archives of several insurance companies, documenting insurance coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves, issued by a predecessor insurance firm. These documents provide the first evidence of ill-gotten profits from slavery, which profits in part capitalized insurers whose successors remain in existence today.
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(2) Legislation has been introduced in Congress for
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| the past 10 years demanding an inquiry into slavery and its continuing legacies.
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(3) The Director of Insurance and the Department of
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| Insurance are entitled to seek information from the files of insurers licensed and doing business in this State, including licensed Illinois subsidiaries of international insurance corporations, regarding insurance policies issued to slaveholders by predecessor corporations. The people of Illinois are entitled to significant historical information of this nature.
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(b) The Department shall request and obtain information from
insurers licensed and doing business in this State regarding any
records of slaveholder insurance policies issued by any predecessor
corporation during the slavery era.
(c) The Department shall obtain the names of any
slaveholders or slaves described in those insurance records, and
shall make the information available to the public and the
General Assembly.
(d) Any insurer licensed and doing business in this State
shall research and report to the Department with respect to any
records within the insurer's possession or knowledge relating to
insurance policies issued to slaveholders that provided coverage for
damage to or death of their slaves.
(e) Descendants of slaves, whose ancestors were defined as
private property, dehumanized, divided from their families, forced to
perform labor without appropriate compensation or benefits, and
whose ancestors' owners were compensated for damages by insurers, are
entitled to full disclosure.
(Source: P.A. 95-331, eff. 8-21-07.)
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