Title: IN THE AMERICA OF 1787, BIG FAMILIES ARE THE NORM AND LIFE EXPECTANCY IS 38 - The Morning Call
Headings: IN THE AMERICA OF 1787, BIG FAMILIES ARE THE NORM AND LIFE EXPECTANCY IS 38
IN THE AMERICA OF 1787, BIG FAMILIES ARE THE NORM AND LIFE EXPECTANCY IS 38
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Content: A musket and powder, pots and pans, hoes and other farm implements have to come from a store. But cash is scarce. In a barter system the local store owner trades goods for produce. Unfortunately for farmers, taxes and mortgage payments cannot be made good in vegetables. When pressured for money the result can be violent - as happened in Shays' Rebellion. Medicine is something practiced at home. Calling a doctor is regarded as a signal that death is near. And the germ theory of disease is still 100 years in the future. Old-fashioned remedies are the best you have. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.