Establishing the American Dream

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, author of Letters from an American Farmer, was a French immigrant who was among the first to detail the ways of American life to European readers overseas. Crèvecœur’s writings talked of the land, its inhabitants, and the life of an American farmer living the “American Dream”.

In Letter II, Crèvecœur’s character “James” writes of his life on the farm, describing in great detail the amount of pleasure and happiness he receives from it. It is clear that he believes his life has become much richer since his migration to New England, writing “...and thank God that my lot is to be an American farmer, instead of a Russian boor, or an [sic] Hungarian peasant” (11). He then goes on to discuss his success on the farm, and the simple pleasure he gets from simple interactions with his family, livestock, and environment. Clearly, James is content with the bountiful life New England has to offer, but the impact of such positive statements tells more about America than one might think.

When studying American culture, one key theme is the pursuit of the American Dream, or the “Good Life”. This refers to the assumed promise of wealth, prosperity, and happiness that comes with being an American. In 1931, writer James Truslow Adams was the first to coin the phrase “American Dream” in his book Epic of America, but Crèvecœur’s character James described it centuries prior in Letter II from Letters from an American Farmer. Although he probably didn’t realize it, Crèvecœur’s feelings of prosperity and happiness in his new adopted country would later be recognized as one of the staples of American civilization.

Works Cited:

Adams, Percy G. "Notes on Crevecouer." Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Sept. 2009.

Library of Congress. American Memory. "What is the American Dream?". Sept. 9, 2009

Northern Slaves: Were They Free? (Crevecoeur)

The author of “Letters from an American Farmer” tells the view of a farmer James and his relationship with slavery. Although a tricky subject, he is able to convey his ideas of slavery with the overall message of an anti-slavery stance. Identifying himself with such people as an anti-slavery minister whom does not condone the practice and preaches against it, but is ultimately rejected by his southern community.

Yet, the writer of these letters has slaves himself. One could not help but wonder why a man of his character and stance on the subject would have slaves of his own. Although he makes it clear that he is behind the movement of emancipation of the slaves, he has a notion that northern slaves are justifiable for the time being. “I hope time draws near when they will be all emancipated: but how different their lot, how different their situation, in every possible respect!” (111). Since northern slaves have been treated with much more humanity, it cannot be considered to be the same as southern slavery. Northern slaves are much different than southern slaves in many respects, but both are slaves nonetheless. Going on to tell how northern slaves are “fat, healthy, and hearty, and far from repining at their fate.”(111), and even stating that they may even be more free than their masters because they reap the benefits of their society but are free from bearing it’s burdens. To an outside party, this notion would be absurd because in all actuality they are not truly free like their masters. But, he goes on to explain that history has shown a long history of slave ownership, and that, because of these traits of violence and human cruelty, slavery is inescapable.

He compiles in his ninth letter, a list of reasons on why man has created slavery, the perils of it, but more importantly how in his case it can be justified. But his justification seems more like an excuse, of which may be showing his true character. An intellectual man can convince a man of many things if he words it just right. One would have to question the integrity of his word after this letter and reconsider his first eight letters.

Works Cited:

Osborne, Jeff. "American Antipathy and the Cruelties of Citizenship in Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer." Early American Literature 42.3 (Nov. 2007): 529-553. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 9 Sep. 2009 .

Saar, Doreen Alvarez. "CREVECOEUR'S 'THOUGHTS ON SLAVERY': LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER AND WHIG RHETORIC." Early American Literature 22.2 (Sep. 1987): 192. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 9 Sep. 2009 .

What Did They Endure?

In the early formations of the Americas, provinces at the time had plantations in which they had slaves to do work in the fields. These slaves went through much trouble from leaving Africa and being separated from their families to living and working on the plantation with minimal living arrangements. In Letters from an American Farmer by John de Crevecoeur, Crevecoeur depicts what slaves may have felt during their time of enslavement.

Men, women, and children were captured from their homes regardless of age or sex equally in Africa and then transported to places which were in need of slaves. Once at the destination, they were sold. Men were preferred over women because women were not seen to be of much help in the fields. To ensure that more women were sold, the seller of slaves would behead some men such that more women would be sold. As for children, the children tended to cost less than adults so they were the target of most captures. At one point in time, abolitionists wanted to put laws against the age of children which were to be sold in the slave trade. The age was hard to determine so they judged the children’s ages by their height. If they were four feet, four inches or taller, then they were old enough to be sold in the slave trade while the children that were younger were not old enough to be sold. (Diptee)

When the slaves returned with their new owners to the plantations of their owners, they lived in small living quarters. In addition to being small, their living quarters dad not have glass windows so it was difficult to be ridden of bugs and cold weather. These conditions would make it difficult for the slaves to live. Most of the living quarters for the slaves had root cellars of which they were able to use for storage and to keep their food. The root cellars were dug into the ground and near the fireplace such that during the cold winters, the food would not become frozen. (Samford)

Given what is known through research and testimonies, it is clear to see that slaves must have had to endure a great deal of difficulty in their time of enslavement. They may or may not have had the ability to come and go from the plantations as they needed but they were able to survive even if it was not the most ideal situation.

Works Cited

Diptee, Audra A. "African children in the British slave trade during the late eighteenth century." Slavery & Abolition 27.2 (Aug. 2006): 183-196. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library, San Jose, CA. 9 Sep. 2009 .

Samford, Patricia. "The archaeology of African-American slavery and material culture." William & Mary Quarterly 53.1 (Jan. 1996): 87. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library, San Jose, CA. 9 Sep. 2009 .

Reflections on Negro Slavery; Capture of Slaves

Capture in West Africa, accounts from the narratives of former slaves, WPA narratives, 1936-1938

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur was born in Normandy, France to minor nobility in 1735. At age 19, Crevecoeur immigrated to England and then, one year later, to Canada. In Canada he worked as a cartographer and surveyor for the French militia, ultimately rising to the rank of lieutenant. After the British defeat of the French army in 1759, Crevecoeur began traveling the Great Lakes region and the Ohio valley. After ten years of traveling and working as a surveyor, trapper, and trader, he settled on a farm in Orange County, New York where he wrote Letters from an American Farmer in 1783.

Within the literature, Letters from an American Farmer, Crevecoeur’s protagonist James, reflects on his experiences with the American Slave Trade. On page 110 he smartly refers to the capturing of Africans as fraud when he states, “my sleep would be perpetually disturbed by a retrospect of the frauds committed in Africa, in order to entrap them; frauds surpassing in enormity everything which a common mind can possibly conceive. “ Fraud is an interesting yet accurate interpretation of the crimes committed during the African slave trade. Fraud is defined by the English dictionary as deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain advantage; this was precisely what was committed during the capturing of Africans in the 18^th and 19^th centaury’s. When the slave ships arrived from Europe, they were stocked with trade goods. Captains offered a wide variety of merchandise such as textiles, firearms, alcohol, beads, and cowries to local African peoples. The European captains would display their impressive and unfamiliar bounty and then invite the interested Africans aboard the ship. Once on deck the Africans were bound, thrown into storage chambers and taken across the Atlantic. Both Della Fountain, enslaved in Louisiana, interviewed in Oklahoma, and Martha King, enslaved in Virginia, interviewed in Oklahoma, narrate similar stories of the betrayal and fraud used to trick the Africans aboard the ships;

“A big boat was down at the edge of a bay an’ the people was all excited about it an’ some of the bravest went up purty close to look at it. The men on the boat told them to come on board and they could have the pretty red hand-kerchiefs, red and blue beads and big rings. A lot of them went on board and the ship sailed away with them. My grandmother never saw any of her folks again…”

European traders had a sophisticated network of deception used to collect groups of people together for capture.

"CAPTURE; SELECTIONS FROM THE NARRATIVES OF FORMER SLAVES." National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox. Web. 9 Sept. 2009. .

Chaves, Joseph. "J. Hector St John de Crèvecoeur". The Literary Encyclopedia. 1 October 2006.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1070, accessed 9 September 2009.]

"Fraud." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 09 Sep. 2009. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fraud>.

"J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.cSep2009

<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Crevecoeur and the American society

J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur was born in 1735 in Caen, Normandy. In 1754, he was sent to live with family in England, where he learned English. Crevecoeur left England right after he finished his education and moved to America when the French and Indian War started. Crevecoeur joined the Canadian military and did fine, however he got injured while protecting Quebec and was hospitalized. In 1759, Crevecoeur moved to New York City, where he became a new man. He later spent his time exploring North America, and wrote about his travels in his first writings. In 1765, he became a citizen of New York and met his first wife, Mehitable Tippet, the mother of three children. He then bought 120 acres in Orange County where he established his home called “Pine Hill” and became a farmer.

Crevecoeur wrote, from 1774 to 1776, about Americans and their lives, and the experience that he gained from his stay in America. In “Letters from an American Farmer” that was first published in 1782 while in France, Crevecoeur writes about the impact that America has on European immigrants, and what an American is. “There is no wonder that this country has so many charms, and presents to Europeans so many temptations to remain in it” (Crevecoeur 35). In addition, Crevecoeur talks about how religions and cultures are diverse and that people are indifferent, and very accepting. “Thus all sects are mixed as well as all nations; thus religious inference is imperceptibly disseminated from one end of the continent to the other; which is at present one of the strongest characteristics of the Americans”(Crevecoeur 31). The letters written by Crevecoeur are significant because they describe the tolerance that Americans have for cultural and religious diversity, and describes the American civilization as the ideal society; Crevecoeur also portrays America as a completely different environment from Europe, with many charms and appeal.

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 7, 2009

Crevecoeur, J. Hector St. John de "Letters from and American Farmer" ; introduction and notes by Warren Barton Blake; New York, Dover Publications

Jean de Crevecoeur: New World

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, born in 1738, served in the French and Indian war in1755. After the defeat of the French Army, he moved to New York State where he picked up farming and married an American girl, Mehitable Tippet, in 1700. He wrote the story, Letters from an American Farmer, in 1792, which had helpful information and the understanding on the “New World” that helped create an indent of America to the European minds. His story described the whole country instead of some regional colony. Crevecoeur was the first person to explore the “American Dream”. He returned to France in 1779 for a few years and came back to New York State as a French Consul, where he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. He left America in 1790 back to France; he died on November 12, 1813 with a heart ailment. The cause of death was discovered when he was arrested as an American spy.
James E. Bishop believes that reading Letters from an American Farmer preserves tension between dark and cynical, and from this, it may be seen not only a manifesto of early American nationalism but Crevecoeur’s feeling about the burgeoning American nation. Bishop also states that this interrelationship is important not only for Crevecoeur, but for the American Landscape itself (361). Crevecoeur describes American as hard working and they are all equal. He also describes the “New Land” in great details unlike other authors of this time, when they only talked about their experience with Native Americans and religion, not much about the land they lived on.
Bishop states how the Letters from an American Farmer, written in 1774 just two years before the Declaration of Independence, has a significant relationship between Crevecoeur’s vision of masculinity and Thomas Jefferson’s. Crevecoeur’s work was between the time when Thomas Jefferson’s national identity was embryonic stage up to the end of the period of submission to authority was not considered antithetical to manliness (362).

Work cited:

Bishop, James E. "A Feeling Farmer." Early American Literature 43.2 (June 2008): 361-377. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. 4 Sep. 2009 .

Jean de Crevecoeur Biography, Bigoraphybase, http://www.biographybase.com/biography/de_Crevecoeur_Jean.html, (accessed 09,05,2009)

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 .