The word "revolution" suggests a violent break with the past. But there was nothing in the @American @Revolution that changed the basic nature of the American people. It simply cut the ties that bound the colonies to Great @Britain. It did create some new types of work, and some soldiers came back to new jobs when the fighting ended. But the part of the country that fought in the war, and the area it affected for any length of time were fairly small. It is therefore safe to say that, in general, the mass of the people remained about the same after the war as before. Those who had careers went back to them, if they had ever stopped in the first place. Shop owners reopened their stores. Merchants went back to trading, and farmers returned to the fields.

The country as a whole was in pretty good condition. And the people were fairly comfortable. At the least, there was no general distress or poverty. Of course there were regions destroyed by the war, but no part of the country had suffered more than any other. And no region had to fight the war during its entire length. American products had always been in demand. This was especially true in the West @India Islands. In fact, a black market trade with the enemy had been born. That meant during the war, shippers were able to sell their products at good prices. The Americans were often said to be a farming people. However, it would probably be more correct to say that most of the people relied on other industries. These included lumbering, fishing, and even the fur trade. There was little manufacturing apart from the household crafts at this time. Shipbuilding was the major exception. These crafts increased during the war, but the general course of industrial activity was much the same as it had been beforehand.

The economy of the young nation provides an important fact. The people were raising far more tobacco and grain, and they were creating far more of other products than they could possibly use themselves. For the surplus, they had to find markets. They had to rely on the outside world for a large part of their manufactured goods, especially for those of the higher grade. In other words, from an economic point of view, the United States remained in the colonial stage of industrial dependence. This was worsened rather than eased by the separation from Great Britain. During the colonial period, Americans had carried on a large amount of this external trade with their own ships. The @British Navigation Acts required that goods be transported in British vessels, manned by crews of British sailors. It also named certain goods which could be shipped only to Great Britain.