President James Polk would have been presiding over Washington and it would have been the year Andrew Jackson died?
Settlers were still bumping around the western United States and carrying a gun was considered normal.
People dug their way out of the forrest, claimed the land as their own, and set up shop building a lifestyle.
How many of you think you could do that?
As a historian I have often wondered how they did it. As an Archaeologist I have seen tools in my own hands and wondered how they knew to make this or that. Last year I was on a very controvercial dig in Canada where remains of a Norse ship and burial were found. Radio-carbon dating put them a good two centuries before Colombus even saw the Caribbean.
Skip back another couple centuries from 1845 to 1366. Imagine living in medieval times? How would a modern day person of faired then?
A guy like me in my late 30’s being tranformed back their would be clueless but so would be one of those guys sent forward in time to us. Any 2003 baby raised to adulthood in the mid 19th Century would be just fine.
Unwritten - this is true. One interesting thing researcher’s routinely find is that nutrition played a huge role in Medieval longevity. Duh! right?
Well it is only kind of right?
Nobles and other folk who had a name for themselves tended to have as much food as they liked. But eating fruits and veggies was not a usual norm at some castles. Dukes, Earls and other various nobles often had horrible cholesterol problems and other abnormalities associated with eating lot’s of red meat and potatoes. However, those who tended to live of the land ‘hunter and gatherer’ types if you will, tended against eating as much meat as their noble counterparts, and often died of things outside the realm of heart disease.
How do we know that you ask?
Examination of the bones of these deceased can give us a nice window into what they were eating. And by examining their midden’s - trash pits - and such, we can see what they were eating as well.
I think I would be able to live on the land. Cut a life out of the woods. It’s odd when you philosophize about how fast paced and time and money driven we are now, as compared to building a barn, or providing food for your family of olden day.
You just had to bring ‘midden’s’ into this didn’t you?
On the second paragraph: yes it would happen to be easier (less frantic, at least) to provide food. I once read that our caveman forebears worked less than 2 hours per day collecting food.
But God help you if you got sick. God help you because no one else can.
I think about this all the time. The hightest point in SC is Sassafras Mountain at 3560’. Even today the only way to get there is to take a shitty road up the mountain (about a 2000’ accent) or hike (same accent). The kicker? There’s a damn homestead up there. In ruins, of course, since it was built and lived in in the 1700s! That boogles my mind. There isn’t a real town for 20 miles. And people lived on this mountain. Unbelievable.
I do not think the “average” American would do well at all. Not at first, anyway. We as a nation are soft, spoiled brats. We have become so used to having our desires/needs meet immediately that it would be quite an adjustment. Our whole way of thinking would have to be drastically changed. However, this is the nature of progress. How would a citizen of 1845 fare in 1645? Probably a little better in comparison, but far enough removed from the Industrial Revolution to make things uncomfortable. I would love to be able to “try-on” the 16th century. I have often wondered if I would be able to do everything I needed to do just to survive.
hijack
You helped with the Norse ship? That is just too cool!
You are absolutely correct. Consider the margin of error. It was much narrower then than it is now. Now, you grow crops, they fail for various reasons, well, it’s bad, but it is not life threatening (generally speaking - does not take into account the Third World countries). Then, you grow crops, they fail, your entire family faces starvation.
Medicine is a whole other can o’worms. It is absolutely amazing that people of the past even survived the treatments. Can you imagine facing down cancer with nothing but willow bark tea and a good blood letting?
I would have a horrible time in 1845. I’d probably be working at some office in NYC owned by a Rockefeller or J.P. Morgan. I would have no idea how to contact my coworkers since there is no email, cellphones or PDAs. I would have to create friggin spreadsheets BY HAND dammit! Where the hell is the coffee? Starbucks won’t be around for over 200 years. And I can’t believe “casual friday” means that I don’t have to wear a tophat with my three-piece suit.
At least in 1366 I can stab most of my problems away with a broadsword.
Sorry Johnathan - I just couldn’t resist bringing the midden…
Bruce - It was most likely in such a high place as to see anyone coming i.e. indians. Most likely if it was from the 18th century, there was also a palisade encircling it. It would be long gone by now though. Were the foundation’s stone?
Lyllyan - Yes, I was fortunate to consult on the Norse ship, I had done previous work for the Canadian Government in Nova Scotia. But L’Anse aux Meadows Newfoundland was the most interesting.
I can’t believe it when I catch myself bitching about laundry twice a week. I have my own machines and don’t have a dirty job with heavily soiled clothes. It’s not like I have to beat stuff against rocks down by the creek! I make me sick.
It would take some serious adjusting for the average American to make it in pioneer times. We are wimps, indeed.
Anybody see that “Frontier House” series on PBS? Bunch of people had to live like 1885 homesteaders out in Montana or somewhere in that area.
At the end, the experts said that the couple with no children had done quite well, and probably would have survived the winter with no problems. One family was borderline, and the third was doomed.
The really interesting thing about it was that, toward the end, all the men and all the children had adapted quite well, and were actually saying they enjoyed it. The teenage girl had gotten to like mowing hay so much that she took her sickle home with her as a souvenier.
The three grown women, however, absolutely hated every second of it! They were still complaining when interviewed six months later.
I doubt it because the view sucks. I guess they were just loners.
Yeah, it was stone. The chimney still sort of stands and you can tell the outline of the house. There is more info in the Guide to the Foothills Trail book.
The thing that kills me is that some dumbasses have moved the stones around to create fire rings. Not a huge deal but annoying.
In 1845 I trully think I would be a mountain Man, or headed out west in search of gold. Hell, without the guilt I’d feel for making my mom worry, I’d probably go do it now.
Indeed. Watching Frontier House, as well as 1900 House before that and reading the Little House books have given me a much greater appreciation of how lucky we are to be living now and not even 100 years ago, let alone 150+ or more.
