>
>also recall reading that literacy rates among both men and women in
>pennsylvania were above 50%, but then, memory may not serve me
>very well... mh
And if they couldn't read they could hear someone else reading. That's what broadsides were for. The first couple hundred copies of the Declaration of Independence were printed as broadsides. A few years ago a flea market shopper found one of these folded up and hidden behind a picture bought for the frame. It was later sold for over $8 million.