What It Felt Like to Be an American Colonist in 1776

We learn about the American Revolution from the accounts of those who lived through it, but they only wrote about the most important events. What their everyday lives were like got short shrift because it was normal to them. Everyone had aches and pains, itchy skin, and deteriorating food, so there was no use in making a big deal about it.

With few doctors and no germ theory, about a third of colonial children died before their second birthday. However, they knew to stay away from people with diseases like smallpox or diphtheria. Low level malnutrition was rampant. A toothache usually meant pulling the tooth. There were treatments like bloodletting, but most colonists just dulled the senses with alcohol. And they still managed to defeat the British. Some people, like Benjamin Franklin, would refer to the constantly suffering health concerns of colonists in their letters. Get a glimpse of what colonial life was like from a medical historian at the Conversation.