W hile the UK government is considering a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, Lloyd’s of London said it was “deeply sorry” six years ago . The historic insurance marketplace said it was deeply sorry for the “significant role” it played in the trafficking of enslaved people and for the enormous suffering caused. It has since installed a commemorative plaque at its London headquarters.

Perhaps more consequential was the research that followed. Through an independent collaboration with Johns Hopkins University in the US, researchers Alexandre White and Pyar Seth examined Lloyd’s archives.

The resulting Underwriting Souls project laid bare how merchant insurers – some linked through predecessor businesses to major insurers operating today – underwrote ships carrying enslaved people across the Atlantic and, in some cases, the enslaved people themselves as “human cargo”.…