Understanding mortality in Antebellum America: the search for a stable business model -- Selecting risks in an anonymous world: the development of the agency system -- Lying, cheating, and stealing versus the court of public opinion: preventing moral hazard and insurance fraud -- The public interest in a private industry: life insurance and the regulatory-promotional state -- Protecting women and children "in the hour of their distress": targeting the fears of an emerging middle class -- Targeting the aspirations of an emerging middle class: the triumph of mutual life insurance companies -- Securing human property: slavery, industrialization, and urbanization in the upper south -- Acting "in defiance of providence"? The public perception of life insurance -- Seeking stability in an increasingly competitive industry: the creation of the American life underwriters' convention -- Insuring soldiers, insuring civilians: the civil war as a watershed for the life insurance industry -- The perils of success during the postbellum years.