Letters from an American Farmer (1782)

1. Letters from an American Farmer (1782) Michel St. John de Crevecoeur

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 • 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 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

3. Some Historical Context • Crevecoeur lauded the American Farmer • “we are a people of cultivators” • The American Revolution • Crevecoeur was targeting 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.”

4. Letters from an American FarmerWritten by Michel St. John De Crevecoeur Main Points • Once in the New World, the European metamorphoses into an America, and America is transformed into a melting pot • Crevecoeur likens poor Europeans to useless plants that are transplanted and have take root and flourished in America • Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. • 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.”

5. Michel St. John de Crevecoeur:Some Ideas, Questions and Quotations • Are Crevecoeur’s Letters a work of fiction or non-fiction? • Development of the wilderness • No system of vassalage: “It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess everything, and of a herd of people who have nothing.” • More equality • People of cultivators • “Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour…” • “As freemen they will be litigious; pride and obstinacy are often the cause of law suits.” • “Here religion demand but little of him; a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God; can he refuse these?” • “…the laws inspect our actions, our thoughts are left to God.” • “…how religious indifference becomes prevalent.” • On the frontier: “they are often in a perfect state of war.” • Who is Crevecoeur’s main intended audience? • The melting pot. • “He does not find, as in Europe, a crowded society, where every place is over-stocked.” • “The rich stay in Europe, it is only the middling and the poor that emigrate.” • “…he now feels himself a man, because he is treated as such.” • “[He] feel an ardour to labour he never felt before.”

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 • It praises the idea of a melting pot and the making of a new society: “…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….”