Would you have survived 200 years ago?

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  • ShellyBell999
    ShellyBell999 Posts: 1,482 Member
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    With a couple of good muskets and a strong horse

    The wild west awaited adventurers like me!
  • MelsAuntie
    MelsAuntie Posts: 2,833 Member
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    Yes, I'm a farmer, I know horses and how to grow food, raise and butcher meat animals and poultry, how to weave, various other skills.
  • assthetik
    assthetik Posts: 3,639 Member
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    I could have survived 189 years ago from today, not so sure about 200

    you see i need noodz on a daily basis and it wasnt untill 1825 that the first actual photograph was taken
  • Badger_Girl99
    Badger_Girl99 Posts: 2,220 Member
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    Hell no. And I'm not ashamed to admit it.
  • Reneesjourney2bfit
    Reneesjourney2bfit Posts: 32 Member
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    W/O modern medicine I would have been dead by 25. But, just that slightest chance I lived, I would probably be a teacher..inventor ..Mother, homemaker...I'm always coming up w/ things I think would work.
  • dswolverine
    dswolverine Posts: 246 Member
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    medically- probably...absent any smallpox or other outbreaks impacting my health. However as a woman, I certainly would not have been able to attend law school (or, I guess back then it would be an apprenticeship) so my skills would be rather limited. So would I have survived? Probably..... but would i WANT to go back then? Hell no.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    Yeah, I think I would. I know how to hunt and raise food, though I suppose at that time I'd just have to be attractive enough to find a man to do that for me.

    Unless I had to wear a corset. Then maybe I would not survive.
  • independant2406
    independant2406 Posts: 447 Member
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    Its 50/50.

    Pros:
    I can build a fire from scratch
    I can ride horses
    I can sew (well enough anyway)
    I know how to grow food

    Cons:
    I could never kill an animal or butcher a dead one even if someone else killed it. If meat doesn't come in a well lit deli case wrapped in plastic I won't touch it.
    My immune system sucks - I would either die from, or become deaf from, constant childhood ear infections. Antibiotics are good.
    I might have died from a ruptured appendix at age 17. This is a subject of debate...appendectomy's were being performed 200 years ago but not by every doctor and surgery was super risky.
  • JenAndSome
    JenAndSome Posts: 1,908 Member
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    I am pretty resilient. I can hunt, garden, cook and build things. I don't need constant technological entertainment. I guess it mostly depends on what class I would be fortunate enough to be born into. I tend to be pretty feisty which isn't always appreciated. Some man would probably have tried to beat me to death for not knowing my place.
  • cosmiqrust
    cosmiqrust Posts: 214 Member
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    i'd probably end up in one of those old school asylums before i could find out tbh.
  • shadowofender
    shadowofender Posts: 786 Member
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    So I currently have no domestic skills to speak of. Though I'm not overly squeamish (my bf is a hunter) and I'm trying to learn some old school skills that I think are cool (knitting, I can already seew by hand not machine, baking from scratch, canning, etc.)

    However, I am a very outspoken woman. I could not play the part of meek housewife. I know this is partially upbringing and if I was born into a society that teaches different things than the equality I learned from my parents, I might have adjusted differently. But I'm too hot headed and irrational. Not to mention the total lack of faith thing, that would could against me in the past.

    So overall. No. I'd get myself beat by whatever husband I had been married off to, I think.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    As a woman, my life would mostly be about cooking, cleaning, sewing (and the like), maybe some farm work and raising the younguns. All of that I could do no problem. The only skill I'd need some help with is baking but I think I'd do fine with practice.

    Personality wise, I'd have a rough time of it as while I'm a traditionalist, I'm also fiercely independent and stubborn as an ox. But the right man would be able to put up with me and my ways. And I'm ok with acting a certain way to please certain people (say when the preacher or relatives came calling) in order to not cause any friction.
  • ForeverCharlie
    ForeverCharlie Posts: 183 Member
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    I would thrive if I was transported 200 years back. Life would be so much better without all this technology.
  • YearsWorthOfFAT
    YearsWorthOfFAT Posts: 210
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    No. I would probably be dead of disease or they would've made a slave out of me. Or i would've been simply shot of course.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
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    I would not have lived to be 10 without modern medicine. In fact, if I ever couldn't afford insulin, I would be dead within a few days... maybe a week if I'm lucky.
  • MarziPanda95
    MarziPanda95 Posts: 1,326 Member
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    I'd perhaps, maybe, be dead from my ITP (if I got cut or something, anyway) but if not... I'm a quick learner and come from a rural community though I'm not a farmer myself. Poetry and the like was popular back then (still is) and as I'm currently doing a creative writing degree I might do well (provided I'm literate, which I would have to be rich to be 200 years ago)
  • AusAshMommy
    AusAshMommy Posts: 845 Member
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    Ok so seeing as how 200 Years, aka 1814 isn't that far into our Modern Past I'd say yeah I'd be ok!

    Technology was up and coming, the "modern" era was right around the corner and we as a country were forming our ideals - meaning as a woman the idea I could be a Dr/Lawyer/Professor, etc. was coming to a head and I could be more than a housewife/teacher/store clerk/seamstress, etc.

    That being said, my skills would be transferable - like many I remember a time pre-cell phones, pre-internet, pre-technology OVERLOAD and can and do function fine without all the technological trappings we have today *I don't have a smart phone and I am perfectly OK with this* I can cook, I can clean, I can raise children, build things, assemble things and am highly adaptable.

    It's all a matter of how you view the opportunity - you can choose to curl up into a little ball and play the pity party game - OR you can choose to learn to adapt and survive!
  • osmium3
    osmium3 Posts: 33
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    Pretty cool Q..

    I have mad skills for survival pre-electricity.

    I can hunt fairly well.
    I can catch fish in any number of aquatic climes.
    I have a full working knowledge of bushcrafting.
    I have farmed using the old methods.

    Like the UM person(dswolverine), I think that disease would be the biggest hazard. However, given my penchant to learn everything about everything, I would likely be more informed about the germ theory of disease than most, and avoid persons that may have had recent exposures to harmful pathogens.

    I do--and hence presumably would have--acted as though I had prescient knowledge of game theory. That, some altruistic behavior, and being ever vigilant to contemporary and emerging threats would give me a good start.

    I would like to believe that I possess a good balance of working technical knowledge attendant to the time period as well as enough insight to trade with others where my knowledge base would be found lacking.

    Of course there are always unknown factors that could easily end one's life. I think that I would have a pretty good shot at surviving past the average life expectancy of 200 years ago. Of course living to roughly age 35 does not seem such an achievement. I can state with authority that--other than early childhood vaccinations--I have not required any medical intervention of any sort to have arrived at my 52.7 years of age.

    On Edit: properly crediting the "UM" person by name.

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