How should companies atone for slavery? Experts offer a positive example

While the government abolished slavery in the U.S. approximately 150 years ago, profit companies still exist today, which is in their better interests. To fully atone for slavery, Sarah Federman, a leading expert on the role of commerce in mass tragedies.

According to Federman, a teacher of resolving the conflict there at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of International Development and the author of “Last Train to Auschwitz: A French National Railway system and the Voyage to Accountability,” one financial-services giant established in the UK has developed a great example as to how to create amends.

A positive example to atone for slavery.

The market for reinsurance and insurance Lloyd’s of London investigated its recorded links to enslavement, made those facts public, and apologised unequivocally two years ago, she added. Lloyd’s also stated its intention to expand its talented workforce of Black along with different individuals of colour, hire more people of colour, and avoid participation in current-day slavery throughout its suppliers or other ways.

Earlier this year, Federman mentioned before the House Financial Services Committee that Lloyd’s and other businesses’ atone for slavery.

In a June 7 letter, Democratic members of that committee urged significant U.S. banks as well as insurers XLF, -0.86 per cent, to disclose information regarding their role inside the finance of slavery, as well as any racial-equity audits.

US financial institutions profited from the slave trade by providing life insurance policies on the lives of the enslaved people, with the owners as beneficiaries, and by making loans to the owners using the enslaved people as collateral.

Lloyd’s said via a spokeswoman that the company is “on a path of inquiry and contemplation as we realise our historical linkages and atone for slavery.”

The BBC has said it has a “duty to assist in healing the harm slavery has inflicted across society” and works with communities most affected by the slave trade. “We are using all of the instruments at our disposal to address these consequences through philanthropic contributions and community partnerships,” a spokesperson said.

Federman talked to MarketWatch on June 19, commemorating the last enslaved person, Black people from Texas, discovering their liberation.

Lloyd’s of London has addressed its involvement in the slave trade by insuring slave ships. Their website has a timeline of their history titled “The transatlantic slave trade”. There’s more they can do on the commitment end. Lloyd’s plans include having a third of all new hires come from “ethnic minority backgrounds”. Federman: My area of research is in who’s doing it well, and it’s a changing conversation.

Presidents and leaders are asked to atone for slavery. These are different kinds of problems that businesses are used to thinking about. More corporations are starting to understand their moral role in the world.

To summarize.

While the government abolished slavery in the U.S. approximately 150 years ago, profit companies still exist today, which is in their better interests. One financial-services giant established in the UK has developed a great example of how to atone for slavery. Lloyd’s of London investigated its recorded links to enslavement, made those facts public, and apologized unequivocally two years ago.

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