# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery
- **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 02 Sep, 2026 at 12:00 pm – Wed, 02 Sep, 2026 at 01:00 pm
- **Event Description**: Virginia Humanities Fellow Virtual Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery

Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026 | 12:00 - 1:00pm
Online
Free, but registration is required at https://lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/16948607

The Library of Virginia will present “The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery,” a virtual talk by Virginia Humanities HBCU Fellow Michelle Oliver, a financial genealogist, preservation strategist and public history researcher. Slavery in the United States has most often been interpreted as a system of coerced labor and racial domination, but while these dimensions are essential, they do not fully account for the financial structures that sustained and normalized human commodification. Oliver’s presentation introduces the concept of the Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery to examine how insurance markets, public infrastructure and industrial enterprise converged to transform enslaved lives into risk-managed financial assets.

Drawing on archival research conducted during Oliver’s Virginia Humanities HBCU Fellowship and informed by more than two decades of professional experience in financial systems and risk analysis, this study reexamines antebellum Virginia through the lens of insurance design. Policies written on enslaved laborers working on canals, railroads and other industrial enterprises reveal that enslaved individuals were not only exploited as laborers, but also actuarialized within mechanisms of capital protection and loss mitigation. Insurance contracts, corporate charters and state infrastructure documents demonstrate how financial institutions integrated slavery into a broader economic architecture.

By reframing slavery as a structured financial system rather than solely an agrarian labor regime, this presentation argues that capital markets were central to its durability and expansion. In the context of the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, examining the economic design of slavery is essential to telling a more accurate and institutionally grounded history.

Oliver is a Virginia Humanities HBCU Fellow in residence at the Library of Virginia, where her research centers on Virginia records and bridges African American genealogy, financial records, business history, archival research and public humanities. She is the founder of Genconcepts, LLC, a heritage research and preservation consulting firm, and serves as president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Richmond, Virginia Branch. Her broader work includes African American cemetery preservation, funeral home records, Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction history, Black preservation and the financial dimensions of slavery and memory.

For more information, contact education@lva.virginia.gov.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/richmond/virginia-humanities-fellow-talk-the-insurance-industrial-complex-of-slavery/200030561266725
- **Event Categories**: art, fine-arts
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 33

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Richmond
- **state**: VA
- **country**: United States
- **location**: 800 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA, United States, Virginia 23219
- **lat**: 37.5413
- **long**: -77.43413
- **full address**: 800 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA, United States, Virginia 23219

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events3/banners/838707d90b51a755abc20f1cd33d22e65d7a1c435520e38550cfe5b1f5ca9ac0-rimg-w1200-h673-dcf8f8f8-gmir?v=1787406821

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery being held?
  - **A:** Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery takes place on Wed, 02 Sep, 2026 at 12:00 pm to Wed, 02 Sep, 2026 at 01:00 pm at 800 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA, United States, Virginia 23219.
- **Q**: Who is organizing Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery?
  - **A:** Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery is organized by Library of Virginia.
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery is ideal for art lovers, collectors, creatives, and anyone inspired by visual arts, installations, and exhibitions. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Richmond, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | The Insurance-Industrial Complex of Slavery sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast.

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