Black Life Insurance and the Blues

Insurance, and specifically life insurance, seems like an odd topic for the blues. Associated with urbanism and capitalism, the theme contests an understanding of the blues as an “authentic” expression of a rural folk culture. Focusing on a cluster of blues songs that reference life insurance reveals the consciousness of a long history of racialized exploitation and discrimination, including the everyday experiences associated with it. The representation of insurance in the blues also provides a window into polysemic modes of signifying and subtle forms of resistance.¹ Recognizing the potential for insurance to function as fertile lyrical subject matter for messages of resistance or struggle requires excavating its long, racialized history extending back to the antebellum world.