Life Before the Constitution
By Josiah Plum
Banker
Life has been very good for me, a banker. I make a lot of money by giving people loans and getting paid interest on the loans. But recently I have been getting paid back with cow and corn! I don't want any cows! I do think that people should be put in jail for not paying me back with money. I have bought thousands of dollars in government bonds though. I would pat people ten cents for every dollar they gave me in bonds.
Southern planter
I live in Virginia and I am a tobacco planter. I own about 30 slaves that do everything for me. If I had no slaves I wouldn't know where I would get people to do the work. Sometimes slaves will run away and I would hire a slave catcher to bring them back to me. I would like a little more money so I could Buy some more land, but the bankers won't lend out anymore money. They say that their sick of getting tobacco instead of their money back. The farmers in the north scare me. They talk about wanting to take away land from property owners, they say they want to be equal. During the revolution I was paid with government bonds which are worthless now.
Farmer
I live in Western Massachusetts with a small amount of land. I am a farmer, I don't grow a lot of food, only enough to feed my family and I with a little to sell in town. I am in bad shape because I borrowed money from the bank to get a new plow and they want the money back, but i don't have it. Plus I haven't been able to pay my taxes. I got so sick and tired of this I joined Daniel Shays. We stopped the trials of several debtors. We succeed in closing down the courts but failed when trying to gather more weapons. There are men in my family that should vote but they can't because they don't own any land. The constitution says tat all men are created equal, but I don't see it.