Would you have survived 200 years ago?

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Replies

  • mank32
    mank32 Posts: 1,323 Member
    They would have reprised witch burning just for me I'm sure of it :smokin:
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Nope. Too many medical issues that would have gone untreated. Or for which is treatment was worse than the disease.
  • I could certainly give it a good fight, but childbirth would have killed me long before cancer.
  • stuart160
    stuart160 Posts: 1,628 Member
    Probably; like many others on here, I would be able to do the same profession that I have spent most of my adult life doing and much of my life has been spent in austere conditions for long periods of time. Keep in mind though that for many of us we are at the top end or have exceeded life expectancy.
  • Ali_momof2
    Ali_momof2 Posts: 478 Member
    Physically yes, but knowing "my place" as a woman? Ha ha NO, I don't know when to shut up now.:laugh:
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  • calcolindo
    calcolindo Posts: 10 Member
    270 years would be better...especially if there were a JAMMF awaiting me! Swoon! :love:
    Actually, I would lose my mind if I didn't have ready access to toilet paper. :tongue:

    JAMMF is what prompted this discussion in the first place... but since the premise for that was 200 years I decided to go with it instead of the more complicated 270...

    As for my answers...
    1) I could survive fairly well in the woods
    2) I'm vegetarian but if that didn't end up killing me my outspokeness would probably get me in trouble
    3) I'd want as many antibiotics as I could get my hands on... or a Diva Cup :P one of those two things...
  • StarChanger
    StarChanger Posts: 605 Member
    I could totally survive since I know how to hunt, fish, camp, make a fire from scratch (might take a while...), etc, but likely many ladies have mentioned, childbirth was a 50% crap-shoot for dying, and my personality and distaste for most things "domestic" makes me a poor choice for traditional female roles back then.

    Luckily, the Wild Wild West was a "thing" during that time and I would have made an AMAZING Brothel Madam, Gold rush (it was a bit later, but still) storeowner, Pioneer wife, Squatter, rancher wife, or maybe even a Outlaw...

    I would WELCOME the lack of computer-related technology, even though I'm fairly techno-savvy (and addicted).
  • StarChanger
    StarChanger Posts: 605 Member
    So 1814? I'd probably have the same profession. I'd miss modern medicine though.

    And sadly, I'd be relegated to being a midwife, with no hope of an MD.

    Bet you wouldn't miss malpractice insurance.... ;)
  • Zerodette
    Zerodette Posts: 200 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!
  • I would have committed suicide 200 years ago, without the help of my medications for anxiety and depression :(
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,785 Member
    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.

    You butcher I'll cook, yuk, I'd never survive that.
  • yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    This is the saddest thing I've read in a long time. Things were NOT better in them olden days :(
  • krawhitham
    krawhitham Posts: 831 Member
    That's pretty strange to think about, considering NONE of my great grandparents had left their home countries in 1814.

    My family (both sides) didn't make it to the US until the 1920s-1930s... And even then they settled in the Northeast which was completely settled and where I guess I probably would be a nurse like I am now.
  • Mygsds
    Mygsds Posts: 1,564 Member
    Yes and no... I can start a fire from scratch, raised in the country so could make clothes and raise food, but kind of a smart *kitten* so probably would be scalped..lol
  • cottoncandyclover
    cottoncandyclover Posts: 48 Member
    200 years ago, I would have been a slave if I lived in a slave state. If I did then I most likely would have been in the fields, I think I would have been too dark to work in the big house. I would like to believe that I would be very defiant, but who knows maybe I would have just toed the line. I would never want to go back in time, those days were not the good old days for people of color.
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    Yes, I could have survived 200 years ago, I would have thrived.
  • Mr_Bad_Example
    Mr_Bad_Example Posts: 2,403 Member
    If you were to suddenly find yourself transported back in time approximately 200 years what skill (that you currently possess) would be most useful? What skill are you lacking that could potentially cause your demise? What one item do you hope you have with you?

    I'd say that my skill in building time machines would serve me well in this predicament.
  • OriginalKatie
    OriginalKatie Posts: 119 Member
    I wouldn't survive the type of nursing they did back in those days! Before Florence Nightingale even!
  • chickwithpencil
    chickwithpencil Posts: 26 Member
    Hard to say. I mean, I can cook, garden, forage, knit, crochet, sew a little, can shoot a traditional bow with decent accuracy and people seem to come to me for basic medical stuff (enough that I've been thinking about going back to school.) Problem is, I have epilepsy and 200 years ago tends to fall between "tried as a witch/demonic possession/burned at the stake" and "forced institutionalization/sterilization/lobotomies/etc." It's hard to say how I'd fare. :-/
  • EMTFreakGirl
    EMTFreakGirl Posts: 597 Member
    270 years would be better...especially if there were a JAMMF awaiting me! Swoon! :love:
    Actually, I would lose my mind if I didn't have ready access to toilet paper. :tongue:

    JAMMF is what prompted this discussion in the first place... but since the premise for that was 200 years I decided to go with it instead of the more complicated 270...

    As for my answers...
    1) I could survive fairly well in the woods
    2) I'm vegetarian but if that didn't end up killing me my outspokeness would probably get me in trouble
    3) I'd want as many antibiotics as I could get my hands on... or a Diva Cup :P one of those two things...
    Exactly!!! And I would probably have a "similar profession." Now - Paramedic. Then - Healer, of some sort.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    why would you have to be in America though?
  • Zerodette
    Zerodette Posts: 200 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    why would you have to be in America though?

    Just how I interpreted the question: transported in time, without a change in place or person.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    why would you have to be in America though?

    Just how I interpreted the question: transported in time, without a change in place or person.

    I interpreted it a bit more loosely... my answer involves going back 100,000 years lol... but my first thought was in the UK (where I'm from) 200 years ago... imagining working in a factory and living in a slum. No idea if I'd survived that. But I could have been born rich, or in the countryside rather than the city, or in Ireland rather than England and died in the potato famine (well, that was a bit more recent than 200 years ago, so maybe Irish living under English rule forced into farming on land that is only good for growing potatoes and living a pretty hard life unaware that I and my family are heading for a severe famine)..... I'm not even Irish but my mind tends to wander in a whole bunch of directions on questions like these.
  • teagirlmedium
    teagirlmedium Posts: 679 Member
    I would not make it for several reasons, my ethnicity being one of the reasons. Now if I could travel to another country when I go back in time then I might be able to survive, depending on the country.
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    why would you have to be in America though?


    People of color were treated like crap all over back in those days.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    why would you have to be in America though?


    People of color were treated like crap all over back in those days.

    People of color are still treated like crap all over... including in America.
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    why would you have to be in America though?


    People of color were treated like crap all over back in those days.

    People of color are still treated like crap all over... including in America.

    Although that is true, that isn't what the OP is about.
  • FatOldManMN
    FatOldManMN Posts: 1,116 Member
    I wouldn't just survive, I would thrive!

    What she said!
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    yes! im a farm girl and love being outside!

    Well I'd be a slave, so the above wouldn't be quite so whimsical as it sounds. If the topic of going back in time comes up in conversation, the first thing I ask is "Would I still be Black?"

    If I retained my skills/knowledge as a physician, I might get to be a midwife or house slave. Lucky me!

    why would you have to be in America though?


    People of color were treated like crap all over back in those days.

    People of color are still treated like crap all over... including in America.

    Although that is true, that isn't what the OP is about.

    Point taken. So 200 years ago, people of color would be worse off than they are today, in most circumstances.

    I'm lucky I'm white, both today and if I was born 200 years ago.