LYCOS RETRIEVER 
17Th Century: People
built 287 days ago
The 3D scenes that depict the 17th Century Chesapeake have been organized into groups called Experiences. Each Experience is set of pages showing a 3D Scene with maps, quotes, interpretative text and links. Start an Experience, then use the Next Exhibit and Previous Exhibit links to move back and forth through the collection of Scenes. Choose one of the Experiences that fits the specific topic you are interested in or covers the region of the Chesapeake you would like to see from the viewpoint of John Smith and the native people of the 17th Century.
Source:
There was a change in attitude during the 17th century. Previously people saw nature almost as a living thing. Now they began to see it as a machine (Isaac Newton called God the 'Divine Watchmaker'). Furthermore Francis Bacon believed that science (or natural philosophy as it was called) could greatly improve people's lives. By the late 17th century there was a new mood of optimism.
Source:
Very little was known about hygiene in the 17th century. People were not aware that disease was spread by germs which thrived on dirt. They did not think of washing their hands before eating or dressing a wound, so diseases could spread quickly. People ed catching 'hospital disease', which they thought came from a poisonous gas called 'miasma' from sewers and cesspits. Doctors still believed the ideas of a Greek physician called Galen. He thought that the body was ruled by four humours, or fluids, which determined what your personality was and how you reacted to various diseases.
Source:
At the end of the 17th century a writer estimated that half the population could afford to eat meat every day. In other words about 50% of the people were wealthy of at least reasonably well off. Below them about 30% of the population could afford to eat meat between 2 and 6 times a week. They were 'poor'. The bottom 20% could only eat meat once a week. They were very poor.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
People