A Day in the Life in the Late Eighteenth Century
Ninety-five percent of all Americans lived on farms or in towns of less that 2,500 people -- all within 90 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, with the exception of the American Indians.
Half the women could write their own names and about two-thirds of the men were literate.
Cincinnati was know as the "Metropolis of the Northwest Territory" with a population of a whopping 750.
Most women married at 23 or 24 and most men at 26.
There were no right and left shoes; all were straight. Each person alternated his or her shoes from right foot to left foot daily so that they wore evenly.
Only the ruffles on a man's shirt showed because the rest of the shirt was considered an undergarment. Indeed, the long shirttails, which were wrapped between the legs, took the place of today's undershorts.
(Source: Smithsonian National Museum of History "After the Revolution" Exhibit)