Life Before the Constitution.
By: Tanner Seymour.
Life as a Banker
I come from a family of bankers and merchants and I am one myself. I live in New York and I give loans to people in order to make an income myself. Our Legislature has passed a very frustrating law that people who owe money to a bank can now pay part of it back by using corn, tobacco, or whatever is of value. Just the other day a man that owed me 100 dollars came in and gave me 2 cows and a bushel of corn. This law is outrages, people who owe money should have to pay money back. A bank is not going to need 2 cows and corn. However I have bought thousands of dollars worth of something called government bonds, and each one I bought was 10 cents each. Now there is a proposal, that all the bonds when bought or sold need to be sold dollar for dollar meaning I can make thousands of dollars off of these. I hope the constitution helps bankers like us.
Life as a Farmer
I am a farmer that lives and owns land in western Massachusetts, I can only make enough food to feed myself and a little extra left over to sell. Last year my crops failed and I am in major debt. I am very worried because you can go to jail for owing money or by being behind tax payments. Everyone in my family has risked their lives fighting against great Britain and it is not fair that I can't even make enough money to pay for food and go to sleep at night thinking about going to jail........