Early American
Environmental Texts:
Rowlandson, Crevecoeur, Emerson
Letters from an American Farmer
J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur
(1782)
Key terms/ideas: pastoral, georgic, literary agrarianism, wilderness
Crevecoeur
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Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur
(December 31, 1735 – November 12, 1813).
Naturalized in New York as John Hector St.
John in 1759.
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French-American writer.
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In 1755 he immigrated to New France
(Canada, Hudson Bay, Louisiana) in North
America, where he served in the French and
Indian War as a surveyor in the French
Colonial Militia
Crevecoeur
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Spent 1759-1769 traveling colonies.
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1769: bought land in Orange County, NY,
married, and settled into life as an American
farmer.
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In 1782, in London, he published a volume of
narrative essays entitled the Letters from an
American Farmer. The book quickly became a
literary success, especially in Europe, and
turned Crèvecœur into a celebrated figure.
Letters
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Who is the person or narrator whose
“voice” we are “hearing” as we read?
What kind of character is he? What is the
voice like?
Letters
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Form: epistolary
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Genre: literary agrarianism, philosophical travel
narrative
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Guiding question: how is a European or a
new immigrant to see America? (see page 1)
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This is American literature, but it is still an
America as dreamed of by the European mind.
Crevecoeur: Letters
An European, when he first arrives, seems
limited in his intentions, as well as in his views;
but he very suddenly alters his scale; two
hundred miles formerly appeared a very great
distance, it is now but a trifle; he no sooner
breathes our air than he forms schemes, and
embarks in designs he never would have
thought of in his own country. There the
plenitude of society confines many useful
ideas, and often extinguishes the most
laudable schemes which here ripen into
maturity. Thus Europeans become Americans.
(10)
Letters
1
What kinds of landscape or
environment are of interest in this
text (Letter III)?
2
What are the text’s attitudes towards
these landscapes?
Crevecoeur: Letters
He must greatly rejoice that he lived at a time to see this fair
country discovered and settled; he must necessarily feel a share of
national pride, when he views the chain of settlements which
embellishes these extended shores. When he says to himself, this
is the work of my countrymen, who, when convulsed by factions,
afflicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient,
took refuge here. They brought along with them their national
genius, to which they principally owe what liberty they enjoy, and
what substance they possess. Here he sees the industry of his
native country displayed in a new manner, and traces in their
works the embryos of all the arts, sciences, and ingenuity which
flourish in Europe. Here he beholds fair cities, substantial villages,
extensive fields, an immense country filled with decent houses,
where an hundred years ago all was wild, woody, and uncultivated!
What a train of pleasing ideas this fair spectacle must suggest; it is
a prospect which must inspire a good citizen with the most
heartfelt pleasure. (1)
Crevecoeur: Letters
The rich and the poor are not so far removed
from each other as they are in Europe. Some
few towns excepted, we are all tillers of the
earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We
are a people of cultivators, scattered over
an immense territory communicating with
each other by means of good roads and
navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of
mild government, all respecting the laws,
without dreading their power, because they
are equitable. (1)
“Cultivators of the earth are the most
valuable citizens. They are the most
vigorous, the most independent, the most
virtuous, & they are tied to their country &
wedded to its liberty & interests by the
most lasting bonds.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Pastoral vs. Georgic

Pastoral (in its simplest and least radical
form)—an idealized alternative space in
which nostalgic fantasy or national
allegory can unfold.

Georgic—a more pragmatic, rather than
meditative, account of the land (and
specifically of agricultural work on the
land).
Letters
“Letter III” frames American character as
a function of how Americans relate to and
dwell in their environment. (see pages 1,
3)
 “Letter III” draws on the myth of America
as new beginning (and return to Eden).
(see pages 2, 10)
 Cultivate. Cultivate! Cultivate!!

Crevecoeur: Letters
In offering a certain conception of progress, of
how cultivation happens, Crevecoeur
differentiates between first settlers and later
settlers: See pages 4, 5, 7, 9
Thus are our first steps trod, thus are our first trees
felled, in general, by the most vicious of our people; and
thus the path is opened for the arrival of a second and
better class, the true American freeholders; the most
respectable set of people in this part of the world:
respectable for their industry, their happy
independence, the great share of freedom they possess,
the good regulation of their families, and for extending
the trade and the dominion of our mother country. (9)
Crevecoeur: Letters
He does not find, as in Europe, a crowded society, where every
place is over-stocked; he does not feel that perpetual collision
of parties, that difficulty of beginning, that contention which
oversets so many. There is room for every body in America; has
he any particular talent, or industry? he exerts it in order to
procure a livelihood, and it succeeds. Is he a merchant? the
avenues of trade are infinite; is he eminent in any respect? he
will be employed and respected. Does he love a country life ?
pleasant farms present them-selves; he may purchase what he
wants, and thereby become an American farmer. Is he a laborer,
sober and industrious? he need not go many miles, nor receive
many informations before he will be hired, well fed at the table
of his employer, and paid four or five times more than he can
get in Europe. Does he want uncultivated lands? Thousands of
acres present themselves, which he may purchase cheap.
Whatever be his talents or inclinations, if they are moderate, he
may satisfy them. (10)
Crevecoeur: Letters
To examine how the world is gradually
settled, how the howling swamp is
converted into a pleasing meadow, the
rough ridge into a fine field; and to hear the
cheerful whistling, the rural song, where
there was no sound heard before, save the
yell of the savage, the screech of the owl, or
the hissing of the snake? (14)
Crevecoeur: Letters
"Welcome to my shores, distressed European; bless the hour in which
thou didst see my verdant fields, my fair navigable rivers, and
my green mountains! If thou wilt work, I have bread for thee; if
thou wilt be honest, sober, and industrious, I have greater rewards to
confer on thee-- ease and independence. I will give thee fields to
feed and clothe thee; a comfortable fireside to sit by, and tell thy
children by what means thou hast prospered; and a decent bed to
repose on. I shall endow thee beside with the immunities of a
freeman. If thou wilt carefully educate thy children, teach them
gratitude to God, and reverence to that government that
philanthropic government, which has collected here so many men and
made them happy. I will also provide for thy progeny; and to every
good man this ought to be the most holy, the most Powerful, the
most earnest wish he can possibly form, as well as the most
consolatory prospect when he dies. Go thou and work and till;
thou shalt prosper, provided thou be just, grateful and
industrious.” (15)
Intro to Emerson and Thoreau
American Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism (1836-1844)
Emerson’s “Nature” is published in 1836 –
taken as the manifesto of the
Transcendental Club.
 This is the same year (1836) that the club
forms, with Emerson as one of its
founding members.
 The Transcendental Club begins to publish
the Dial, a magazine (1840-1844).
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Transcendentalism: Central Ideas
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Union of spiritual and physical realities:
immersion in nature can lead to spiritual insight.
Divinity in nature – transcendental natural reality.
We don’t normally have access to this reality, but can
glimpse it in moments.
The mind is creative in perception, not just a
passive receptor of impressions.
Reason (a high, intuitive form of perception) vs.
Understanding (working through logical premises) –
a distinction adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Human beings are products of nature – perfect end
result.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
One of the most important writers of
mid-19th century America. Poet; speaker;
journal/essay writer.
 Unitarian minister who moves away from
Christianity towards pantheistic language.
Resigns pastorate and becomes a lecturer.
 Religious, but does not want to be
restrained by dogma.
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Nature
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Central question: why does nature exist? What is it’s
relationship to ME, if it is NOT ME?
Emerson wants an “original relation to the universe”
(27).
Insight v. tradition
Revelation v. history
Believes answers to all questions are possible to
discover.
Science – all about finding a theory of nature. Know
reality through studying nature.
Art = “mixture of his [man’s] will” with nature (28)
Idea of correspondences: inner and outer, part and
whole, mind/spirit and world
Anthropocentric/Ecocentric
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Not a binary, but a continuum.
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Where does a given text (or philosophy)
place its value?
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Manifestation in language?
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Stylistic or formal features of the text.
Emerson: ecocentric/anthropocentric?
“Nature, in its ministry to man, is not only the
material, but is also the process and the result. All
the parts incessantly work into each other’s
hands for the profit of man.” (31)
“Nature is thoroughly mediate. It is made to
serve. It receives the dominion of man as meekly
as the ass on which the Saviour rode. It offers all
its kingdoms to man as the raw material which he
may mould into what is useful … One after
another his victorious thought comes up with and
reduces all things, until the world becomes at last
only a realized will,--the double of the man.”
(from the chapter “Discipline”)
The Poet’s Perception
When we speak of nature in this manner, we have
a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We
mean the integrity of impression made by manifold
natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick
of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the
poet. The charming landscape which I saw this
morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or
thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and
Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them
owns the landscape. There is a property in the
horizon which no man has but he whose eye
can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.
This is the best part of these men's farms, yet
to this their warranty-deeds give no title.
Nature
Love of nature has eye/heart of child 
“wild delight” (29)
 Famous passage: transparent eyeball,
“glad to the brink of fear”

Transparent eye-ball passage
1. What is Emerson proposing happens in the
woods? (try to paraphrase as much of the
passage as you can)
2. What do you notice about the language of this
passage? Is Emerson using any poetic devices?
(or in other words, think about the style of this
passage, how it is written)
3. Based on your reading of the passage, come up
with ONE detailed question to ask about the
passage and about the essay more generally.
“Standing on the bare ground, -- my
head bathed by the blithe air, and
uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean
egotism vanishes. I become a
transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see
all; the currents of the Universal Being
circulate through me; I am part or
particle of God.”
Nature—A radical new imagination
of woods and wilderness:
Correspondences
The greatest delight which the fields and
woods minister, is the suggestion of an
occult relation between man and the
vegetable. I am not alone and
unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to
them. The waving of the boughs in the storm,
is new to me and old. It takes me by
surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is
like that of a higher thought or a better
emotion coming over me, when I deemed I
was thinking justly or doing right. (28)
Nature—A radical new imagination
of woods and wilderness:
Correspondences
Yet it is certain that the power to produce this
delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a
harmony of both. It is necessary to use these
pleasures with great temperance. For, nature is not
always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene
which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as
for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with
melancholy today. Nature always wears the
colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under
calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it.
Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape
felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend.
The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth
in the population. (29)
Nature’s Multiple Uses
1. Commodity – food, air, water, earth – physical
uses. Everything humans build comes from nature.
2. Beauty – idea of nature as cosmos. Love for
things in and of themselves.
a) Perceiving nature causes delight; we love it just
for being beautiful.
b) Nature also has spiritual beauty. Connection
between noble acts and beautiful scenery.
c)Nature has intellectual beauty – absolute order;
contemplation leads man to great creation.
3. Spirit- nature also reveals spirit, the “ineffable.”
Physical nature is compared to the shadow which
indicates the sun behind it.
Spirit and Nature
The world proceeds from the same spirit as the body of
man. It is a remoter and inferior incarnation of God, a projection
of God in the unconscious. But it differs from the body in one
important respect. It is not, like that, now subjected to the human
will. Its serene order is inviolable by us. It is, therefore, to us, the
present expositor of the divine mind. It is a fixed point whereby
we may measure our departure. As we degenerate, the contrast
between us and our house is more evident. We are as much
strangers in nature, as we are aliens from God. We do not
understand the notes of birds. The fox and the deer run away
from us; the bear and tiger rend us. We do not know the uses of
more than a few plants, as corn and the apple, the potato and the
vine. Is not the landscape, every glimpse of which hath a grandeur,
a face of him? Yet this may show us what discord is between man
and nature, for you cannot freely admire a noble landscape,
if laborers are digging in the field hard by. The poet finds
something ridiculous in his delight, until he is out of the
sight of men. (50)
Nature—Correspondences
When I behold a rich landscape, it is less to
my purpose to recite correctly the order and
superposition of the strata, than to know why all
thought of multitude is lost in a tranquil sense of
unity. I cannot greatly honor minuteness in
details, so long as there is no hint to explain the
relation between things and thoughts; no ray
upon the metaphysics of conchology, of botany, of
the arts, to show the relation of forms of flowers,
shells, animals, architecture, to the mind, and build
science upon ideas. (51)
From Emerson to Thoreau…
If Emerson is arguably the most important
19th century American literary figure,
Thoreau is arguably the most important
19th century American environmental
figure.
 What are the stereotypes we have of
Thoreau?

Thoreau: Emerson’s “Earthy
Opposite”?
Heavily influenced by Emerson
 Split visions of Thoreau: an ecological
saint? Or the wannabe who lived in
Emerson’s backyard?
 Walden never claims to be an experiment
in wilderness living….so what is it?
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What is Walden?
Based on the journals Thoreau kept
during his stay at Walden Pond.
 Kept a journal from 1837-1861.
 Spent 2 years in a cabin at Walden Pond
that he built himself (1845-1847).
 Walden is not published until 1854: nine
years of writing and revisions! Walden is
thus a highly constructed literary
piece – not a direct nature essay or a
simple journal.
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