The average (mean) life expectancy was lower, but the median was similar. That is to say, it wasn't some kind of miracle for a man to make it to 90 or a woman to 100, it just wasn't quite as common as it is today (and it's still not common.) Plenty of people lived to typical life expectancy today, barring typical early causes of death such as trauma, infection, deadly disease, poisoning, etc. Today we take it for granted that the only likely causes of fatal trauma are car accidents and occasionally workplace incidents (or shooting if you're a nigger,) but even then we expect the ones that aren't instantly fatal to result in a hospital stay rather than lingering in bed for a week or two before dying of infection. Same with... pretty much every communicable disease except rabies or ebola.
Bottom line, anyone telling you the average lifespan was shorter back then like it matters on an individual level, is either ignorant of why the mean was lower or is deliberately lying to convince you that men just dropped dead of natural causes 100% of the time by 50.
BMN003 -1 points 3 months ago
The average (mean) life expectancy was lower, but the median was similar. That is to say, it wasn't some kind of miracle for a man to make it to 90 or a woman to 100, it just wasn't quite as common as it is today (and it's still not common.) Plenty of people lived to typical life expectancy today, barring typical early causes of death such as trauma, infection, deadly disease, poisoning, etc. Today we take it for granted that the only likely causes of fatal trauma are car accidents and occasionally workplace incidents (or shooting if you're a nigger,) but even then we expect the ones that aren't instantly fatal to result in a hospital stay rather than lingering in bed for a week or two before dying of infection. Same with... pretty much every communicable disease except rabies or ebola.
Bottom line, anyone telling you the average lifespan was shorter back then like it matters on an individual level, is either ignorant of why the mean was lower or is deliberately lying to convince you that men just dropped dead of natural causes 100% of the time by 50.