I check the Ancestry card catalogue to see what is new and also use it to search for databases I don't know about. I never thought that slave owners would take out insurance on their slaves. and as early as 1640! Since using the ProQuest History Vault brought up Delaware, I thought I'd try this one for the city of Pittsburgh. While Pittsburgh did not come up there were lists of slaves including some surnames, the place of residence, and the slave holder's name.
An example is Henry Clay a slave in Louisville Kentucky whose holder was James McDowell.
It says he was a steamboat hand and the policy on him was number 1686.
Now the links to the policy information go to the Internet, so be sure you're on a computer that will do that. Some library computers will not. This one went to the state of Illinois.
I take it that Northern insurance companies sold policies to people who held slaves in other states even if slavery was illegal in theirs. What an eye opener.
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