Crevecoeur's American Dream

Michel Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur was born in 1735. Crevecoeur moved to New York and became a citizen in 1765. Four years later in 1769 he was married to Menitable Tippet, who he later has three children with. Crevecoeur traveled around the colonies, but maintained a farm in Orange County. During the American Revolution Crevecoeur returned to Europe where he published “Letters from an American Farmer” under his American name J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, which has since gone through 8 editions. Upon his return to New York he discovered that his house had been burned down and his wife killed.
The inspiration for Crevecoeur’s writing came from his stay in America, and the way of life he learned to admire. The essays also give insight into the political and social structure of Crevecoeur’s America, where all colonists are “gentle, cheerful, and neighborly” (Carew-Miller 244). As an example of how neighbors and towns helped each other Crevecoeur describes the story of a family that had recently arrived in the colonies and was put up in different houses. During their stay they were taught skills necessary to survive, and were then able to purchase and run a successful farm.
Crevecoeur also describes what he believes an American is. He discusses how colonists come from many regions, religions, and cultures to mix into one culture of their own area. This is shown when Crevecoeur states that “the name of Englishman, Frenchman, and European is lost, and in like manner the strict modes of Christianity as practiced in Europe are lost also” (Crevecoeur 29). This mixing and acceptance of different beliefs is what Crevecoeur believes is “at present one of the strongest characteristics of the Americans” (Crevecoeur 31). The image painted by Crevecoeur in his essays contains many ideas that are to this day the basis of the American dream: acceptance of different cultures and religions, and a classless society that supports all of its members. His writings were influential in the world’s view of the developing Americas, and are still referenced today as a description of the ideal American society.
Works Cited
"Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009

“Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur.” Encyclopedia Brittanica Online. 7 September 2009
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Carew-Miller, Anna. "The language of domesticity in Crevecoeur's `Letters From an American Farmer'." Early American Literature 28.3 (Dec. 1993): 242. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose, Ca. 7 September 2009 .