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J. Hector St. John de CrèvecœurLetters From An American Farmer
Nonfiction | Collection of Letters | Adult | Published in 1782A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Differences Between European and American Society
The differences between European and American society is an important theme in the book. It is the minister who first introduces the issue as part of his argument that James should not be intimidated by Mr. F.B.’s status, and that James should consider himself entirely qualified to write to such a man. The minister compares the vitality of American life favorably to the grand history and ancient ruins of Europe, arguing that while “the half-ruined amphitheatres and the putrid fevers” of Italy “must fill the mind with the most melancholy reflections,” in America, “everything would inspire the reflecting traveler with the most philanthropic ideas” (13). This difference is symbolic of the wider political differences between the two locations, with Europe being structured around archaic class systems, monarchies, and religious oppression, while in America, “everything is modern, peaceful, and benign” (13).
James soon takes this up, too, celebrating the fact that America “is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess everything and a herd of people who have nothing” (39-40). He continues to highlight these differences repeatedly throughout the book, taking almost any opportunity to remind Mr. F.B. of the egalitarian superiority of American, pointing to everything from the way that, in America, “the strict modes of Christianity as practiced in Europe are lost” (48) to the way the inhabitants of Nantucket work “with great diligence, but without that servility of labour which I am informed prevails in Europe” (123). Importantly, however, by the end of the book, James has grown disillusioned not only with Europe but with America, too. After witnessing the apathetic exploitation and murder of enslaved people in Charles Town, he declares “[e]ven under those mild climates which seem to breath peace and happiness, the poison of slavery, the fury of despotism, and the rage of superstition are all combined against man!” (162). Likewise, with the encroaching Revolutionary War filling him with despair, James begins to consider that, even in America, “[t]he innocent class are always the victims of the few,” and “[g]reat events are not achieved for us, though it is by us that they are principally accomplished, by the arms, the sweat, the lives of the people” (193). It is this disillusionment that drives him to live with Native Americans in a bid to find the freedom that he now believes to be absent in both Europe and white America.
American Identity
James believes that the conditions of America and the origins of its population create a particular form of national identity or national character. In his view, Americans are, like him, humble and welcoming, modest and demure, and sober and industrious, and he does his best to spread this perspective and encourage it in others. He notes that he “env[ies] no man’s prosperity,” and hopes to spread this idea, and “to teach the same philosophy to [his] children,” so they can “be […] good, substantial, independent American farmers” (38). Similarly, he declares that the humble contemplation of how the “formerly rude soil […] has established all our rights” is “the true and the only philosophy of an American farmer” (26).
These ideas point to an image of American citizens as upright, honest, sober, and industrious, as is repeatedly highlighted through the use of exemplars like “honest Andrew” (79) and the inhabitants of Nantucket. James even suggests that there is a shared “national genius” (112) and that “the generality of Americans” possess “a large share of native penetration, activity, and good sense” (111). There are some variations within this, largely based on location. Those “who live by the sea,” for example, are “more bold and enterprising” (44), while those “who inhabit the middle settlements” are “very different” because “the simple cultivation of the earth purifies them” (45). The people of “the great woods” (45), meanwhile, are “ferocious, gloomy, and unsocial” (50) and are “often in a perfect state of war; that of man against man” (46). However, this is because they represent America’s “feeble beginnings and barbarous rudiments” (46) and are slowly being driven out or refined by the spread of civilization. There are also exceptions to James’s view of the national character: people who do not live humble, caring lives. The people of Charles Town, who live in luxury and “neither see, hear, nor feel for the woes of their poor slaves, from whose painful labours all their wealth proceeds” (153), are chief among these, and it is encountering such people that marks the beginning of James’s disillusionment with America and its people, and the start of his quest to find a worthier life.
Disillusionment
In the early letters, James is extremely enthusiastic about the promise and potential of America and the opportunity offered to poor Europeans to build better lives for themselves away from the tyranny of Europe. However, this arguably naïve outlook gives way to “melancholy reflections” (163) towards the end of the book. Letter IX is the turning point, as the sight of “a Negro, suspended in [a] cage and left there to expire” (164), coupled with the way the inhabitants of Charles Town “neither see, hear, nor feel for the woes of their poor slaves, from whose painful labours all their wealth proceeds” (153), causes him to reevaluate his views on America and humanity more generally. Despairing, he asks “[t]he history of the earth! Doth it present anything but crimes of the most heinous nature,” and asserts that “man, an animal of prey, seems to have rapine and the love of bloodshed implanted in his heart” (159). His normally positive perception of nature sours at this point, as he observes that “we often talk of an indulgent nature, a kind parent […] Yet if we attentively view this globe, will it not appear rather a place of punishment than of delight?” (160-61). Considering this in relation to slavery, he bleakly concludes that “[e]ven under those mild climates which seem to breath peace and happiness, the poison of slavery, the fury of despotism, and the rage of superstition are all combined against man!” (162). The cynicism and disillusionment continue in the final letter, as James escapes the encroaching Revolutionary War. While before he had associated such violence and its devastating effect on Europeans, he now concludes that everywhere “[t]he innocent class are always the victims of the few” (193), completing his disenchantment and causing him to abandon white society to seek “the most perfect freedom” (204) among Native Americans.
Environments Shaping People and Society
The idea that people are shaped by the environments they inhabit appears several times in the book, perhaps most explicitly in James’s suggestion that that “[m]en are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow” (44). He gives examples of this in his assertion that people “who live by the sea” are “more bold and enterprising” (44), those who live in “the great woods” (45) are “ferocious, gloomy, and unsocial” (50), and those “who inhabit the middle settlements” are “very different” because “the simple cultivation of the earth purifies them” (45).
The idea that working the land—that is, interacting directly with the environment—shapes people in a positive manner appears several times in the book. However, it is perhaps most apparent in the discussion of working, and surviving on, barren soil, such as that found on Nantucket. James suggests that such conditions are central to the peace and cooperation of the colony, who have little time for quarrels or negativity. Rhetorically, he asks “[h]ow could the common follies of society take root in so despicable a soil[?]” (104), and notes that “[t]his land must necessarily either produce health, temperance, and a great equality of conditions, or the most abject misery” (105). Harsh climates do not always shape people in a positive way, however. In his more somber speculation on the relationship between the environment and its inhabitants, he draws parallels between the harshness of the land and the harshness of the people, pointing to “the frigid sterility of the north” that produces humans who “live and fare worse than the bears they hunt and to which they are superior only in the faculty of speaking” (161). Nor is this relationship absolute; men are capable of producing evil even in pleasant environments, as James notes when he observes that “[e]ven under those mild climates which seem to breath peace and happiness, the poison of slavery, the fury of despotism, and the rage of superstition are all combined against man!” (162). However, James still considers the environment to be a great influence and believes that those who live a more natural life engaging with the natural world around them are generally better people, or that “the state of men in the woods” is preferable to that “of men in a more improved situation” because “the vices and miseries to be found in the latter exceed those of the former, in which real evil is more scarce, more supportable, and less enormous” (163).
