250 years ago, March 23, 1775 - "Liberty or Death"

[ameridaddy]

I missed the 250th anniversary, one week ago today, of a debate and speech that greatly influenced the founding of our country.
A well done reenactment was presented in little St. John's Church, here in Richmond Virginia, where the original occurred.
In attendance were Virginia Governor Youngkin and other local notables. Ken Burns and Carly Fiorina, Chair of a Revolutionary War group, gave speeches. The only fault I found of the well done presentation was that the actors were much too old, especially George Washington, who was 43 at the time of the speech, and Patrick Henry himself, who was just 39.

Virginia American Revolution 250 Commemoration – VA250 – Join VA250 for an inclusive, statewide commemoration of the ideas and ideals of the founding of our nation. - drop to the video mid page, and start at 58:50 for the actual beginning of the reenactment, bypassing the opening blah blah speeches and hear the arguments leading to and setting the context for Henry's plea, or go to 1:21:15 to start at the beginning of Henry's famous speech.

 

[Rudi]

I wonder if next year will be like 1976? Remember ALL the stuff? It was the Buycentenial. There will be merch.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

43 and 39 were pretty old men! 38 was the average life expectancy.

1975; in a build up to the bicentennial, every fire hydrant in Columbus, Ohio was panted to represent a different American character from the revolution. By 1976, almost every community in the US was a "Bicentennial Community", some were little crossroads towns, some were big cities, some were whole states! But in all the US, There was only one school district, Mine; Big Walnut in Delaware County Ohio (comprised of about 105 square miles of farmland, and lots of patriotic people.) By August 1, 1976, just about every person was sick and tired of all the marketing that was pounded down our throats!

I remember a few other major anniversaries that were not near as commercialized:
1963, 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg along with 1988 the 125th.

1966 the 150th anniversary of the founding of Sunbury, Ohio.

2003 the 200th anniversary of Ohio.

All of these were a somewhat big deal. Nobody pushed it down everyone's throat!

Ivan

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

BTW: The 200 Anniversary is called "The Bicentennial", the 250th is called "The Semiquincentennial". Just in case there's a test later.

Ivan

 

[S-W4EVER]

43 and 39 were pretty old men! 38 was the average life expectancy...

That's a sobering thought. While there were a few people that lived to be old back then, it was very few. We are blessed to have good health care, to include EMS.

 

[M1A4ME]

That is an awesome thing to attend/see/hear/feel.

We went a few years ago and keep telling other people we know that they should go. So far, no one has. They are missing out on a great experience.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...the 250th is called "The Semiquincentennial"...

Ivan

Here I thought that was the British musical term for a 128th note.

I wonder if next year will be like 1976? Remember ALL the stuff? It was the Buycentenial. There will be merch.

Ah yes... "Beware the Tides of Merch"

 

[ameridaddy]

43 and 39 were pretty old men! 38 was the average life expectancy.
...
Ivan

The short life expectancy of the time was due to lethal diseases we can now treat successfully, and many of them caused by lack of modern sanitation are near extinct in this country. I don't believe people of the time looked much older than they would today at the same age..

The attached portrait of Patrick Henry was done from life 20 years after the speech, and Washington's bust was done from a life mask taken in 1785, 10 years after the speech. The Washington likeness was so good, that when the Marquis de Lafayette, Washington's friend and compatriot, saw the statue for the first time, he said: "That is the man himself. I can almost realize he is going to move." Washington saw the statue and declared it a accurate likeness of himself.
Looking at these life images of an older Washington and Henry, made years after the Liberty or Death speech, I still think the actors portraying Washington and Henry looked and were way too old for the roles they played.

 

[Golddollar]

The short life expectancy of the time was due to lethal diseases we can now treat successfully, and many of them caused by lack of modern sanitation are near extinct in this country. I don't believe people of the time looked much older than they would today at the same age..

I'm sure the amount of deaths of children kept the average life expectancy down. I used to work for a township road department and part of my duties were to help maintain a cemetery that contained graves of a fair number of Revolutionary War veterans. I remember seeing graves for family groups that had a couple children dying within a week or two of each other. I suspect there must have been some type of epidemic in the area at the time.

Granted, this probably wasn't the largest sample possible, but my observations in this old graveyard seemed to imply that if you survived the childhood diseases of the time and military service you had a pretty good chance of reaching what we would consider a fairly advanced age.

 

[ameridaddy]

I'm sure the amount of deaths of children kept the average life expectancy down. I used to work for a township road department and part of my duties were to help maintain a cemetery that contained graves of a fair number of Revolutionary War veterans. I remember seeing graves for family groups that had a couple children dying within a week or two of each other. I suspect there must have been some type of epidemic in the area at the time.

Granted, this probably wasn't the largest sample possible, but my observations in this old graveyard seemed to imply that if you survived the childhood diseases of the time and military service you had a pretty good chance of reaching what we would consider a fairly advanced age.

I've seen family and community clusters like you describe in mortality schedules from the 1800's, and were due to childbirth (mother and/or child) cholera, typhoid, and later tuberculosis. The first were sanitation issues and the latter not understanding contagion. As late as the latter half of the 19th century, my great grandmother was one of twelve children, born between 1877 and 1907 in a major city, and only six lived to majority.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I've seen family and community clusters like you describe in mortality schedules from the 1800's, and were due to childbirth (mother and/or child) cholera, typhoid, and later tuberculosis. The first were sanitation issues and the latter not understanding contagion. As late as the latter half of the 19th century, my great grandmother was one of twelve children, born between 1877 and 1907 in a major city, and only six lived to majority.

Dad's dad was the youngest of 12 (born from 1866 to 1888) from a German mail order bride. Great Grandpa was a Civil War veteran, none of his kids went to war and all reached adulthood, many to late 60's. Grandpa died at 69 in 1958. With 12 kids that all lived, you'd think dad would have cousins by the bushel! In fact he had only 1 cousin, 1 brother & a sister that died at 14 A burst appendix, it took 6 months to kill her in 1930!

Ivan