The so-called "golden age," in the American past is not something we should aspire to return to. It had many things which may seem to some to be better than today - a closer family life, less depersonalization, a slower pace, with time to appreciate the simpler joys of life - but that all came at a price. Life was much harder in those days. People worked long hours without the benefits of technology that we enjoy today. They had to be very strong and independent. Women did not have the rights they had today, and were very much confined to the home and the duties of family raising and taking care of a husband.
In the 1790s, much of America was unsettled, the settlers being confined to the east coast, with Kentucky as the frontier . Farmers produced all that their family needed to survive. For the average family, survival was a struggle. Large families were the norm, with the children needed to help on the farms. Houses were often little more than shacks, with no privacy, no indoor plumbing or sanitation. Travel was slow, mainly by horse or carriage or cart, and was dangerous. Families socialized at such events as barn raisings, corn huskings and haying.
By the 1840s, settlers were pushing west by wagon train, and the railroad was also starting to spread across the continent . Steam boats navigated the waterways. The new methods of travel and transportation drew the nation together and led to regional specialization. Industrialization took hold and the manufacture of textiles now took place in factories, with women leaving home to work in the mills. This marked the end of subsistence farming as wages could be earned in the factories. A wide range of products were now bought and sold for profit. Family sizes decreased as there was no need of so many to work the farms, and women were working outside the home, and women married at a later age. Social life became separated from economic necessities (barn raising...