They viewed reaching an advanced age as a significant accomplishment.
Life expectancy in early colonial Virginia was less than 25 years -- including the reality of infant mortality and a high number of deaths in childhood. In the colonial beginnings of New England, around 40% of children died before reaching adult age. Life in the colonies was very hard for the early colonists.
The now U.S. was controled by the English.
The striking feature of the Jacksonian era was an increase in the influence of the common man.
