Crevecoeur's "Letters from an American Farmer" sought to provide European readers with accounts of colonial America. Though Crevecoeur was neither American nor a farmer, his letters presented a vision of an American identity distinct from Europe and inspired the Declaration of Independence. The letters described the character of the average American farmer and the principles of the new American society, including individual responsibility, religious tolerance, and the American Dream of opportunity through hard work.

1. CREVECEOUR – LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
FARMER
When published, 'Letters' was received as the
most recent contribution to a growing body of
works which sought (or pretended) to supply the
British & European reading public with reliable
accounts of the land and the peoples of the
troublesome North American colonies.

2. Creveceour was neither an American nor a farmer - French aristocrat who owned a plantation outside
New York City before the Revolution,
HIs 'Letters' present a vision of America that would inspire Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, and many other writers up to the present. (What is the vision?)
The 'Letters' were originally conceived as series of essays – were revised as letters
(epistemological) by British publishers
Letters is a good literary expression of the political principles in the Declaration of Independence
and Paine's Common Sense. (What principles from the letters are reflected by the Declaration?)
The substance of the 'Letters' has become part of the mythology of America.

3. Letters was one
of the first works
describing the
character of the
average
American.
• Appealed to American and
European readers -
• American readers were a
society of colonials who had
just overturned centuries of
tradition and were attempting
to define themselves as
something new, in order to
distinguish themselves from
those who were exactly like
them but born under
monarchical governments in
Europe.
• European readers were trying
to make sense of this new
man - the American

4. Outline
(know the outline characteristics
as well as the specifics of the 2
letters that have been assigned)
• Letter I: Introduction - establishes the circumstances of James, the
American Farmer's correspondence with Mr. F. B. and suggests the point
of view of the succeeding letters (a systematic survey of American
society in all its manifestations).
• Letter II: Consists of an informal and impressionistic report "On the
Situation , Feelings, and Pleasures of an American Farmer" as the
narrator has experienced them on his farm in central Pennsylvania.
• Letter III: "What is an American?" attempts to answer the query of its
title by taking a sweeping survey of the impact of America on the
European immigrant, a survey which sketches the diversity of American
life but which concentrates on the rural culture of the middle colonies.
Became one most influential single reports on America ever written
• Letters IV-VIII: Describe in detail the manners and customs of the
whaling villages of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

5. Outline continued
• Letter IX: Gives a brief account of Charleston, South
Carolina.
• Letters X-XI: Return the reader to the middle colonies, first
for some sketches of the birds and snakes on the narrator's
farm and then for the report of a Russian gentleman on his
visit to John Bartram, the celebrated Pennsylvania naturalist.
• Letter XII: The farmer pictures, in highly emotional colors,
the disruption of his life by the outbreak of the Revolution
and expresses his intention of fleeing with his family to an
Indian village in the remote wilderness. (Biographical in
nature – Crevecoeur British sympathizer)

6. Importance of the Letters
 Provides useful information and understanding of the New World.
 Creation of personas, or disguises - James, the American Farmer.
 Attempts to create an American identity - it is an attempt to describe an entire
country, not merely regional colonies.
 Celebrates American innocence and simplicity.
 Describes American tolerance for religious diversity.
 Asks the important question - what is an American?
 He is the first writer to explore the concept of the American Dream. (Know what the
American Dream is – understand its origins and its significance)

7. Limitations of the Letters:
 Specific details in matters of geography, religion, history, and politics are missing.
 He glosses over the issue of slavery.
 American agriculture is treated generally too - absence of details.
Describes features of the Utopian American Frontier:
Mild government, no church tithes or dues, no autocratic prince or lord, no "absurd
ordinances," no middleman in agriculture, peaceable inhabitants, no military laws,
and no conscription or draft.

8. Letters describe how the social principles of the new American
society operate in the life of an individual American.
• The nature of the American character—
– The work ethic,
– The responsibility of the individual,
– Anti-intellectualism;
• The farmer as a prototype of the American character;
• The treatment of slaves;
• The view of new immigrants and their ethnicity;
• Literary aspirations (character and quality)
• and stereotypical American characters.