Investing in Life: Insurance in Antebellum America

Conclusion “Have you provided for your Family an Insurance on your Life?”

c o n c l u s i o n “Have you provided for your Family an Insurance on your Life?”  In 1856, Harper’s Monthly Magazine published a sixteen-panel cartoon entitled “Life Insurance—A Dream.” The protagonist, Mr. Smythe, is sitting in his easy chair in front of the hearth, gently rocking his baby’s cradle as he reads about life insurance, an activity which inexplicably puts him to sleep. In his dreams, he heads off to the insurance office, where he is greeted enthusiastically by the upscale gentleman who represents the company; in the absence of soliciting agents, Smythe is obliged to take the initiative in seeking a policy. The directors visually assess him, opining that he is “good for 25 years,” before sending him off to be examined by the firm’s doctor, who, upon determining that his “brain, lungs, and heart are affected,” sets the appropriate premium. Yet for some unnamed reason, Smythe leaves the office (as did so many others) without the proposed policy, perhaps intending to think it over for a couple of days. He quickly realizes the recklessness of delaying completion of this essential task. While he continues to slumber, Smythe’s subconscious (reflected in the ensuing panels) reveals all his concerns about modern living. In the crowded urban metropolis , he might lose his footing on the sidewalk, be run over by a wagon while crossing the street, or be hit by falling debris from a construction project. Accidentally landing in a “Lager Bier Saloon,” he perhaps fears the detrimental effects of alcohol on his longevity (the German immigrants in the saloon would probably be turned down for a life policy because of their intemperance). The city is an anonymous world, and Smythe imagines being attacked by someone who mistakes his identity as he walks innocently down the street. When he tries to escape the hazards of urban life by heading to the country, he fears dying in a hunting or fishing accident—his close encounter with drowning reminiscent of the many instances of faked deaths perpetrated against the life insurance companies in this manner. But certainly the highest risks are the result of modern technologies: a camphene lamp blowing up, a railroad crash, or (his greatest fear) a steamboat explosion. Everywhere he turns, his life is in danger, putting his middle-class family at constant risk of losing their only source of support. “Life Insurance—A Dream,” panels 1–2 and 13–16, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, January 1856: 284–85. Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Making of America Digital Collection. In addition to the parlor decor and his clothing, Smythe’s middle-class status is indicated by his wife, who is the strong, central presence ruling the domestic sphere (but absent from all the public frames): she admonishes him when he props his feet on the bassinet, has the “presence of mind” to throw water on him when his hair is set aflame in the house, and comforts him while he is treated by a doctor. As she rescues the baby from his carelessness, he recognizes the fragility of their comfortable existence; without his steady income, her middle-class lifestyle would quickly come to an end, and any aspirations he might have for his baby would be shattered. The final panel reads: “Best to be on the safe side. Proceeds to get his Life insured.”1 Despite the lightheartedness of the etchings, the cartoon was intended to convey a serious message to the reading public: the world is a dangerous place, but life insurance can allay some of the economic consequences of an untimely death. For families dependent on a regular salaried income for survival, life insurance at midcentury was evolving from a novel solution for mitigating one of the greatest risks they faced (the death of the main breadwinner) to a necessity of middle-class life. Whereas life insurance had once been called a wager contract, the father refusing to take out a policy was now accused of gambling with the future of his family. Life insurance had become “indispensable; indeed . . . the only method by which such persons can make any provision for those dependent upon them in case of premature death.”2 By the early 1860s, it was not unreasonable for a company to ask prominently in its advertising, “Have you provided for your Family an Insurance on your Life?”3...