I am reading a book on the tavern culture of early America and it says they drank spirits constantly. I am wondering how they managed to stay hydrated and prevent hangovers with such a rigorous drinking regimen.
When Europeans visited the States, they noted how we “could imbibe heavily without the appearance of intoxication" (Taverns and Drinking in Early America, Salinger)
Daniel Okrent writes in Last Call:The Rise and Fall of Prohibition the number of distilleries in the nation increased fivefold, to 14,000 in between 1790 and 1810. “In cities it was widely understood that common workers would fail to come to work on Mondays, staying home to wrestle with the echoes and aftershocks of a weekend binge. By 1830, the tolling of a town bell at 11 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. marked ‘grog time.’
Alcohol was preferable to drinking water at the time due to the high amount of disease and impurities in water - drinking water standards didn't come about nationally until 1914. It's safe to assume many Americans were quite pickled and subsequently hungover and miserable throughout most of their waking hours. However, it's important to remember the ABV of most beer, cider, and spirits of the time was a good deal lower than modern times. This isn't to say there wasn't moonshine and rum that could strip paint off - but the average colonist wasn't drinking Jack Daniels all day.
Then again, hangovers and the health effects of heavy drinking were part of the culture. Prohibition is part of the culture as well - In his 1784 essay, An Inquiry into the Effects of Spirituous Liquors, Rushasserted wrote that “spirituous liquors destroy more lives than the sword.”
Tl:Dr - Most weren't Frat Guy drunk everyday, tolerance and lower ABV helped, but plenty were hungover and miserable and likely took care of it as well as they did their teeth - poorly.