From 1640 to the early 19th century, an estimated 3.2 million enslaved African people were transported by Britain’s vast shipping industry. Lloyd’s was the global centre for insuring that industry.
We are deeply sorry for the Lloyd’s market’s participation in the transatlantic slave trade. It is part of our shared history that caused enormous suffering and continues to have a negative impact on Black and ethnically diverse communities today.
Prompted by the anti-racist activism of Black people and allies following the murder of George Floyd, Lloyd’s has been on a journey of research and reflection to acknowledge our historical connections to slavery and the lack of ethnic representation that still exists in the Lloyd’s market today.
We held a number of conversations with Black and ethnically diverse colleagues. We had some honest conversations with our Black and ethnically diverse colleagues, in both the Corporation and the market, about Lloyd’s history, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and their experiences. The views of those colleagues have been compiled into a video and we are grateful for their insights.
We also facilitated a series of Conversations between Black or ethnically diverse colleagues and white allies, exploring their lived experience and the legacy of enslavement. Each conversation uses an item from the Lloyd's Collection as the starting point for an anonymous conversation. The items were chosen to align with colleagues’ specific ancestry or selected by colleagues themselves.
We have undertaken several pieces of research to understand and contextualise our history.
This includes an independent research collaboration with Black Beyond Data, based at Johns Hopkins University, to examine items in our Collection with significant connections to slavery in order to contextualise Lloyd’s institutional role. The work is editorially and financially independent from Lloyd’s, funded solely by the Mellon Foundation. The research was published as a digital exhibit in November 2023.
Dr Alexandre White, who is leading this project at Black Beyond Data, said:
“This project seeks to serve as a critical site from which to consider how to read and witness historical objects produced in the service of slavery in ways that complicate the narratives put forward by their creators.Dr Alexandre White
In doing so this digital exhibit will serve to complicate and consider how insurance agreements pertaining to slavery and books containing references to dozens of insured slaving voyages dehumanize those quantified and numbered on their pages…
These histories are painful, and their continued erasure in public discourse limits our ability to reckon with these pasts. This project will contribute… to grappling with these histories and their legacies.”
Read more about our research into our historical links to the transatlantic slave trade and how we are responding to our past
Below are some of our other pieces of research into our past.
As we further examine Lloyd’s connections to slavery, we will continue to make our findings public, and will ensure that an honest account of our role in the slave trade is a part of the story we tell about Lloyd’s.
We also recognise that the legacy of slavery continues, evident in the racial inequality that persists to this day.
In November 2023, we launched Inclusive Futures: a programme of initiatives to respond to the legacy of slavery by helping Black and ethnically diverse individuals progress from the classroom to the boardroom.
We are prominently displaying Sir Frank Bowling’s work ‘Empire Day Picture’, in the Lloyd’s Building in London, which encapsulates his ancestors journey through enslavement and empire to his own inspiring story of becoming one of the world’s leading painters.
Lloyd’s Corporate Archive is freely accessible to the public. The catalogue of our Corporate Archive is available at the London Archives. Most of the collection dates from 1771, with some deeds dating back to 1585. Please note that the Captains’ Registers are held at the London Archives and the rest of the archive is available at the Guildhall Library.
Listen to the conversations
Visit Underwriting Souls digital exhibition
