Letters from an American Farmer Written by Michel St. John De Crevecoeur

1. Letters from an American FarmerWritten by Michel St. John De Crevecoeur Presented by: Heather Justice

2. Biography • Born Michel Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur • In 1735 around Caen, France • Came to North America by way of England in 1755 • Served with Montcalm’s forces during the assault on For William Henry • Settled in upstate New York in 1759 • Became a British subject in 1764

3. Biography continued • Married in 1770 to Mehitable Tippet • Returned to France during the Revolution in 1780 • Letters from an American Farmer published in 1782 • Wrote under pseudonym J. Hector St. John • Returned to North America and learned his wife had been died and children were living with neighbors • Crevecoeur was French consul in New York City from 1783 to 1790 • Returned to France in 1790 and remained there until his death in 1813

4. Historical Context • Crevecoeur was an American Farmer • “we are a people of cultivators” • The events leading to the Revolution were of major significance at the time • Crevecoeur was targeting the poor Europeans as his audience • “What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing?” “his country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequence.”

5. Main Points • The metamorphosis of an European into an American • Crevecoeur likens poor Europeans to useless plants that are transplanted and have take root and flourished in America • The freedom and opportunities in North America (social, religious, etc.) • The chance to be a “freeman” and there are “no princes, for whom we toil, starve, and bleed: we are the most perfect society now existing In the world. Here man is free as he ought to be;” • To describe and define what it meant to be an American • “The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.”

6. Historical Significance • The document gave an idealized view on the way of life for an American • Attempts to define “what is an American?” • The document was important to the poor European giving him hope that he will succeed and encourage him to work hard in America to be a success • Refers to “individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men” and “that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country”

7. Questions • Do you agree on the Main Points? • What did this document say to you? • Do you feel that the descriptions of the transformation of an European into an American was romanticized or idealized? • Crevecoeur said “he no sooner breathes our air than he forms schemes, an embarks on designs he never would have thought of in his own country.”

8. Sources • Bibliobase from Houghton Mifflin Company • http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569179/Crevecoeur.html