Introduction

By our standards, life was not very easy for the Americans of the new nation. Compared with people in Europe at that time, however; Americans were, on average, comfortably well-off. Because of the rich resources of the nation and the need for workers, most people could earn their own living with hard work and ingenuity. Americans in different locations had very different lifestyles. Nevertheless, they became skilled in adapting to the challenges of their varied environments.