AETNA APOLOGIZES FOR PRE-CIVIL-WAR POLICIES ISSUED ON LIVES OF SLAVES
Mar 13th, 2000 • Posted in: NewsNEW YORK
Aetna, the nation’s leading health insurer, last week became the first major U.S. company to apologize for its actions relating to slavery in the years prior to the U.S. Civil War, admitting that it had insured slaves with policy benefits paid to their owners, not their families.
“Aetna has long acknowledged that for several years … it may have insured the lives of slaves. We express our deep regret over any participation at all in this deplorable practice,” said spokesman Fred Laberge.
The apology follows the recent efforts of New York lawyer and activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, who has petitioned several U.S. corporations, including Aetna and FleetBoston Financial, asking them to apologize for their alleged involvement in the slave trade.
“These profits (from slave policies) have helped Aetna to become a multibillion-dollar corporation today,” Farmer-Paellmann told the Reuters news agency. “They have a moral obligation to apologize and share that wealth.”
Farmer-Paellmann has urged the companies to consider making restitution by funding college scholarships for blacks and investing in impoverished city neighborhoods, a move so far rejected by Aetna.
Though apologetic for underwriting roughly one dozen life insurance policies for slaves, the company has “concluded that no further actions are required at this time,” according to Aetna’s Laberge.
