The Treasury of Weary Souls contains more than 1300 policy records of enslaved workers in America's most lucrative and dangerous antebellum industries.
After the slave trade to the US was outlawed in 1808, Africans were smuggled into the country (a tricky process), they were bred (which depended on the human life cycle), and they were rented (so the people who treated them as property could make as much money as possible). People who rented slaves insured them, so that these valuable assets would not be destroyed while in someone else's possession.
Legally slaves were property. But, no other form of property could enhance its value through the skills it acquired. The Treasury of Weary Souls is the first resource to consolidate policy information on the practice of insuring human beings from enslaved persons treated as cargo on Transatlantic vessels, to enslaved workers in America’s most dangerous and most lucrative industries. The Treasury of Weary Souls contains data on financial firms who acquired slave insurance policies during the 20th century and continue to profit from them today.