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 f