Letters from an
American Farmer
(1782)
Michel St. John de
Crevecoeur
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
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.”
Letters from an American Farmer
Written 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.”
Michel St. John de Crevecoeur:
Some Ideas, Questions and Quotations
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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.”
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….”