John Hector St. John de Crevecoeur was born in Normandy in 1731. Before embarking to America he finished his education in England. Crevecoeur made the journey to the new land in 1754. He would first arrive in Canada were he served under General Montcalm in the French and Indian War. In 1759 he moved to New York State where he would eventually marry and purchase land to farm and live on. There he would become a farmer and during his time of cultivating the rich soil of America he was inspired to write the Letters from an American Farmer. After finishing his letters he would journey back to France leaving his farm and family behind unaware that during his time away the American War of Independence would emerge and his farm, house, and wife were burned to ashes by the red man, the Indians. When he returned he had to start over and he got in to public affairs. Years later he would journey back to France where he would eventually pass away in 1813.
America’s beautiful nature was a main aspect in Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer. The letters describe a society idyllic for all people. He described a land with disciplined hardworking farmers and there families, no refined classes, and a vast range of religious perspectives. Along with all that America had the richest soil to cultivate on. The idea of possessing land is why most Europeans immigrated over to America. An interesting argument from the text comes when Crevecoeur’s has his own perspective on who an American is. This is an age-old question and in his letter he states “What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing? ……What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European or the descendant of an European...” (Crevecoeur, pg 26) He implies that no man is a true American, but merely an emigrant. Ubi panis ibi patria was the motto of those emigrants, “Where there is bread, there is my homeland.” It is the poor and middle class Europeans that take the long journey to the land of opportunity in hopes of reformation. It is safe to say that Crevecoeur was one of the first to generate an image of the American dream, a dream of salvation to the emigrants of Europe.
Works Cited
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 2: St. Jean De Crevecoeur." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap2/creve.html, September 6, 2009
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur." Houghton Mifflin Online Study Center. http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/eighteenth/stjohndecrevecoeur_jh.html (Accessed 6 September 2009.)
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I agree that in Crevecoeurs writing he paints a picture of an ideal land with soil that grows anything and enough land and friendly neighbors for anyone who wishes to join the colonists. In addition to his praise of the new world he also introduces to the reader the idea of a man with no homeland. As ccarter16 quoted "where there is bread, there is my homeland." This quote shows not only how the colonists merge to form a culture unique to themselves, but also how they were developing a new mentality of origin not mattering as much as it used to.
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