Daily Life 1750-1850
The fact is there is no average daily life as life varies greatly depending wealth, location and just plain old luck among other factors. We can say that our ancestors lived at a subsistence level compared to today. Even the rich lacked much of a safety net when events went against them.
Agriculture dominated the economy and daily life in our ancestors time. Each day was focused on essential chores and tasks required to live today and put enough aside to survive the non-growing season. This left little to barter for things they couldn't grown or make and made accumulating capital difficult.
- Our ancestors had little medical knowledge and relied on folk medicine and indian cures.
- Medical science was rudimentary and could do more harm than good.
- The first large inflection point in life expectancy was more attributable to public health awareness and practices than medical science.
- There were no cures for deadly diseases such as typhoid, cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, measles, whooping cough and influenza.
- Many legitimately trained doctors of the day would be considered quacks today.
- People didn't know why water was not safe to drink, they just knew it made them sick.
- The two most common substitutes for water were hard apple cider and beer, which was all ages drank.
- With no refrigeration, milk spoiled too quickly to be widely available in settlements.
- Homemade fruit wines offered a treat for country dwellers while the rich imported wine from Europe
- Our ancestors ate a wide variety of food. However they were much more affected by seasonal availability and lacked the means to preserve many food items.
- Out of necessity, the focus was mostly on growing foods that could be preserved.
- Salt cured and smoked pork (bacon and ham) were an element of almost all meals.
- Corn, beans and peas were the primary vegetable staples.
- In the south, cornbread was the norm rather than wheat bread.
- Food was generally more plentiful than in England, but monotonous
Breakfast
- Our ancestors woke early and went straight to their chores.
Dinner
- Served early to mid afternoon, dinner was the main meal of the day.
Supper
- Supper as a meal didn't become common until well into the 1800's. More of a light snack, usually from leftovers from dinner.
- Riverboats were commom on the Tar River and maybe because of that, no rail line came to Tarboro until 1882.
- County residence strongly resisted the railroad. In 1832, the new rail line was diverted a mile north into the next county.
Education
- Religious groups generally provided better educational opportunites for their childeren.
- Mothers were usually responsible for their childerens education, however, many mothers were illiterate
- Few books were available. The most common, other than the bible, The New England Primer; Aesop’s Fables and Robinson Crusoe
- Those fortunate enough to attend grammer school were taught to "read, write and cypher". However, most schools were only a few month's each year.
Commerce
- Cash crops of tobacco, cotton, and indigo were the most common
- The bulk of the cash crops were produced on large farms and plantations