What is an American ?, from Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer, Letter III

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A Frenchman by birth, Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur (1735?-1813) soon transformed himself into Hector St. John as part of his quest to become an epitome of the American farmer. Leaving his mother land around 1754 as a pioneer to French Canada, he finally settled in America in the neighborhood of New-York in 1759, and became an American citizen in 1765. He adopted his new country with great enthusiasm, changing his name and, undoubtedly, much of his identity. By the eighteenth century, Americans were rather pleased at having successfully converted the wilderness into an agricultural garden where the human values, highly promoted by Jefferson, would thrive. In 1782, "Letters From an American Farmer?, a series of twelve essays, introducing James, Crèvecoeur's narrator and double as an American farmer were published. Crèvecoeur wrote about a man writing to somebody, which creates a mirror effect. This was an immediate success, especially because the essays reflcted the internal conflicts of the American Revolution and the developing American identity.

Extraits

[...] “What is an American (from Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer, Letter III) A Frenchman by birth, Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur (1735 1813) soon transformed himself into Hector St. John as part of his quest to become an epitome of the American farmer. Leaving his mother country around 1754 as a pioneer to French Canada, he finally settled in America, in the neighbourhood of New-York, in 1759, and became an American citizen in 1765. He immediately adopted his new country with great enthusiasm, changing his name and, undoubtedly, much of his identity. [...]

[...] We will see in our last part that Crèvecoeur's text has some limitations, and that maybe, the author does not take into account certain historical truths that would be interesting to mention. From the start, Crèvecoeur's vision seems to be rather clear-cut. From the depiction of the New World to the portrait of an altering identity, he has set ideas, and the text, in this respect, appears as dogmatic on the whole. In fact, the text is indeed in keeping with the pre- romantic trends of the late 18th century. [...]

[...] Actually, it must be mentioned as an anecdote that Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer were so laudatory of the climate, productions, and of the people, that more than five hundred families left France on the faith of the author's statements, and settled in America, where most of them perished. Indeed, the notion of the “American Dream” has its source in this text. It looks as if Crèvecoeur were trying to promote the American continent as being that of abundance and opportunity. Crèvecoeur's views reflect the pre-romanticism of the period, and it is not erroneous to say that they lay the foundation for the notion of the “American Dream”, which is still a topical question nowadays. [...]

[...] Actually, the process of the evolution is at the core of the passage, and it is obvious from the very beginning of it, since the text starts with the expression European” and closes on the mentioning of American”. The reader is encountered with many negative evaluative adjectives to depict the European condition. Indeed, Europe as a whole is portrayed as a despotic continent, where there is no freedom. Oppression seems to be the miserable fate of a European man. The latter is depicted as “limited” (l. indigent people” (l. (l. [German] boor” (l. servant” (l. [...]

[...] It is worth mentioning that the American Revolution and the Civil War later on strengthened those distinctly American features, such as the sense of freedom or the spirit of enterprise, and most of these characteristics still partake of the typical current American identity. As a last remark, Crèvecoeur's thought that the environment shapes character was later considered by F. J. Turner in his book entitled The Significance of the Frontier in American History (text a century later: Crèvecoeur's ideas had gained ground! Bibliography Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer. Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History. [...]