Abstract

"Violence and the Task of Valuation"

Michael Ralph, Howard University (michael.ralph@nyu.edu)

The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance is arguably the most successful African American business in US history, from its origins in 1899 until its demise last year. Scholars and observers have documented the improbable success of this firm, yet this paper attends to two signal features of its history that have not yet received significant attention: 1) the role of structural violence in its founding; 2) the task of valuation that dominated its focus.
Drawing upon original archival materials, this paper carefully examines the origins of NCMLI in the aftermath of the 1898 Wilmington massacre, showing how its founders wrestled with widespread devaluation in African American life while forging a firm dedicated to growing wealth by pricing it. This paper also examines how NCMLI grappled with the quotidian task of pricing African American life over a long twentieth century in which African American mortality was a pervasive concern.