Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Letters from an American Farmer, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Government
Farming, Land, and Love of Nature
Emigration, Hard Work, and Success
Religion in America
Colonization, Atrocity, and Apathy
Summary
Analysis
James wishes he could know the thoughts and feelings of an Englishman newly arrived in America. He imagines such a man must feel a sense of national pride. After all, English industry and ingenuity are on display here. A century ago, America was “wild, woody, and uncultivated,” but now it is filled with houses, farms, villages, and cities.
In the last letter, James focused on the joys of his own life as an American farmer. In this letter, he considers a newcomer’s likely impressions of the young country. An English visitor should find much that’s familiar, like farms and settlements. Notably, James takes for granted that the transformation of the wilderness into settlement is a positive form of progress—a perspective that indigenous Americans wouldn’t necessarily share.
Themes
America is also very different from Europe. Unlike in Europe, there aren’t wealthy lords, aristocrats, kings, or established churches. There isn’t such a vast gulf between rich and poor. “From Nova Scotia to West Florida,” everyone farms the land, with the exception of some town-dwellers. The country is huge, and people communicate by means of roads and rivers, “united by the silken bands of mild government” and living under equitable laws. People are hardworking because they work for themselves.
Though a European visitor would find some things about America recognizable, the two places are also fundamentally different. James links America’s more egalitarian atmosphere to its farming-based economy. He also connects it to a “mild” government that generally leaves people to themselves. Presumably, then, if either of these conditions changed, America would become a less equitable place, and a less happy one.
Themes
In the countryside, there aren’t castles and mansions dominating over dismal peasant homes, but fairly uniform standards of living for everyone. Even a humble log cabin is dry and comfortable. In towns, the loftiest position is that of lawyer or merchant; in rural settlements, there are only farmers. On Sundays, one sees respectable congregations of tidy farmers’ families. Ministers are of the same humble class as their flocks. Nobody must serve princes. America is “the most perfect society now existing in the world.”
While it wouldn’t be difficult to find exceptions to James’s statements here—certainly there were poorer people in America who didn’t live in comfortable homes, and indentured servants, not to mention enslaved people, who had little choice about serving others in order to survive—James’s point is that America, as a young country, is free from the class stratification deeply embedded in European society. In his view, this is what makes America the “most perfect” place to live.
Themes
America’s freedom will endure for a long time. North America isn’t yet fully occupied, and we don’t even know how far it extends, as Europeans have only explored half of it.
James takes a notably optimistic view of American expansion here. He takes for granted that there won’t be any serious impediments to America claiming all the land it wants in North America (quite an assumption, given he admits that Europeans haven’t even mapped the entire continent yet!), and that it will be good if it happens—disregarding the fact that those lands are already occupied.
Themes
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An English visitor would be curious about Americans’ origins. James notes Americans comprise a mix of “English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes.” The group of people known as Americans has arisen from this “promiscuous breed.” James especially admires the relatively unmixed Englishmen of the Eastern part of the colonies. They have accomplished much with “ungrateful” soil within a short period of time.
A key feature of America’s uniqueness is that people emigrate there from many different countries. While certainly people emigrated between European countries at this time, the sheer variety of nationalities found in America would indeed be novel for an English tourist. James uses “promiscuous” in the sense of a diverse mix, not in a pejorative sense.
Themes
James says that in “this great American asylum,” Europe’s poor people have gathered for various reasons. Many of these people, he claims, were poor, oppressed vagrants who had no real native country. In America, under better laws and a better social system, such Europeans have “become men,” flourishing as much as they once withered. Here, they can be actual citizens. The laws, and their own hard work, bring about this transformation. American laws protect and reward newcomers, hardworking emigrants can buy land, and being landowning “freemen” brings every benefit a man could want.
James characterizes America as a safe harbor for oppressed peoples. Not only that, but life in America allows people to flourish to a degree they couldn’t in Europe. This is because, in James’s view, people’s hard work counts for more in America than it does in Europe, allowing them to develop a stake in their communities and gain the privileges that come with it. Of course, not everyone who comes to America gets to be or benefit from a “freeman”—a point James doesn’t pursue here.
Themes
American laws come from American government, which itself derives “from the original genius and strong desire of the people” and was ratified by the crown. By way of contrast, James mentions Nova Scotia, where the crown itself has greater power; this, combined with the mosquitoes, has resulted in a much more thinly populated province.
Laws are friendly to hardworking Americans because those laws originate with Americans themselves, who understand their best interests better than a king thousands of miles away. James argues that too much royal power has a stagnating effect on people. He might name mosquitoes pointedly here, hinting that an intrusive government is like a nuisance insect!
Themes
James argues that a poor European emigrant can’t be very attached to a country where he had nothing except for some linguistic and familial ties. America, on the other hand, gives him “land, bread, protection, and consequence.” So to answer the question, “What is an American?” James answers that it’s someone who likely has a “strange mixture of blood,” has left behind old ways and prejudices, and has adopted new ways under a new government and by virtue of his new rank.
Crèvecoeur’s positive experiences as an American emigrant certainly color the perspective he expresses through James; undoubtedly, plenty of emigrants, no matter how much they might gain in America in terms of security and standing, still found language and family ties a very strong link to their former country. However, his point stands that America drew many emigrants so strongly that they readily adopted new ties, opinions, and ways of life in their new land.
Themes
In America, all such people are “melted into a new race of men” who will one day change the world. Americans are “the western pilgrims” who will “finish the great circle” by carrying European culture and achievements with them as they go. Because of the opportunities available to them here, Americans should love their new land much more than their old land. Instead of begging and starving, American children are now “fat and frolicsome” and eagerly help their fathers in the fields. Religion is voluntary, not imposed by rulers. In light of all this, “the American is a new man,” with new principles, ideas, and opinions guiding him.
In his optimism about American potential, James voices a troubling perspective about (as he sees it) the supremacy of European culture and its destined global reach. He doesn’t acknowledge any potential harm the “western pilgrims” could cause as they colonize further. However, his main point here is that, by virtue of their emigrant experience, Americans are very different from their European counterparts; their freedoms are not just novel but revolutionary in the history of the world.
Themes
“British America” lies along a coast 1,500 miles long and about 200 miles wide. James wants to describe its society, or at least that found in the “middle provinces.” It may be different from what one would find in Europe, but it boasts its own variety, from coastal dwellers to forest-dwellers and everyone in between. People are like the soil, or society, in which they grow.
James shifts from sweeping praise of America’s virtues to describing aspects of the land and its people in greater detail. He particularly focuses on ways that people’s environment shapes them—an unsurprising emphasis, given his romantic view of the relationship between a farmer and his land in previous letters.
Themes
People who live near the sea are much like it. They are “bold and enterprising” and avoid confinement in their work and society. They like to use the sea to transport goods, and they innovate labor-saving techniques.
James’s generalizations about people who live in different environments tend to be whimsical, but they do offer insight into the kinds of innovation that were blossoming across the colonies at this time. Fishing and seafaring are of special interest to James, and he’ll discuss them further in Letters IV-VIII.
Themes
On the other hand, those who live in the middle settlements enjoy cultivating the land (farming). Being “independent freeholders” creates a unique class of people that aren’t known in Europe. Freemen develop wisdom early in life, they’re stubborn, and can be litigious. They follow politics and think for themselves in religious matters, if they’re religious at all. James identifies with these “middle” folk.
Given James’s love of the farming life, it’s not surprising that he favors the people of the agricultural middle colonies and thinks their characteristics—like stubbornness and freethinking—are some of the traits that best exemplify America. He still acknowledges their faults, like a tendency toward lawsuits (probably springing from their attachment to their land).
Themes
Finally, men who live near the forested frontier, being distant from the centers of government, are rather left to themselves. People are driven to such places, James suggests, by things like misfortune, greed, or the need to start fresh. Areas like this tend to be characterized by conflict, drunkenness, and idleness, and there isn’t sufficient government or community to rein the people in. James suggests that anyone who wants to understand America’s “feeble beginnings and barbarous rudiments” should visit the frontier. Gradually, over decades, more hardworking people move westward to improve and civilize these areas begun by less able pioneers.
James has praised Americans’ virtues so much that his attitude about people on the frontier (just beyond the Appalachian Mountains at this point) is a bit jarring. It’s worth remembering that James does value government and settled communities as desirable things. So, in that light, he tends to view pioneers as outcasts—people who choose to live beyond the bounds of recognized society and presumably lack the virtues that make society strong.
Themes
Literary Devices
In addition, each province has its own unique character, shaped by its government, climate, and other special circumstances. Within a few generations, then, a European emigrant becomes not simply an American, but a Pennsylvanian, Virginian, or other “provincial.” Across the colonies, in fact, people differ so widely that they really only have language and religion more or less in common.
America isn’t just divided by regions but by distinct colonies (what James calls provinces). Americans tended to have a strong sense of colonial identity, not just a broader American identity—especially if families settled down in a given colony for multiple generations.
Themes
James suggests that Mr. F.B. might also be interested to know how the different Christian denominations give way to religious indifference in America. If members of a religious group settle down in close proximity to each other, they establish a church and worship undisturbed. It’s the same if a new sect emerges in Europe, emigrates, and makes converts in America; as long as they’re good neighbors, nobody minds how they pray. But as members of different groups intermingle, they gradually become less zealous. Much as Americans tend to forget about their former identification as “Englishman,” or “European,” they also tend to forget their fervent adherence to a particular sect in Europe.
Crèvecoeur was a deist, meaning he didn’t adhere to a mainstream Christian denomination or set of beliefs. So, his outlook on Christianity (as presented through James) is detached in one sense, but perhaps also downplays the strength of religious belief in America. James’s basic argument here holds true—denominational identities weakened fairly rapidly as people settled in more religiously diverse communities and intermarried more than they typically did in Europe. Still, weakened adherence to a given church (like Lutheran or Presbyterian) isn’t necessarily the same thing as a decline in religious faith.
Themes
James knows F.B. might find this hard to understand, so he offers an example. Imagine traveling and coming upon a Catholic household; they worship as they’ve been taught and bother nobody. Then, a little farther down the road, you meet a German Lutheran who also worships according to his conscience and lives peaceably, getting along with his neighbors and not persecuting anybody.
To help his reader understand the phenomenon of religious diversity in America, James takes an imaginary tour of an American community. In this (idealized) community, people are free to worship according to their consciences, yet they generally keep their religious beliefs to themselves, which allows them to live quietly side by side with people whose ancestors may have persecuted their ancestors generations before.
Themes
Next door, you find a fiery “seceder,” but since he doesn’t live near others of his beliefs, he mostly focuses on tending his farm. Next to him lives a Dutchman who adheres to the Synod of Dort. From the looks of his tidy farm and handsome horses, you will deduce that he’s more concerned about this world than the next, and after all, his views about the latter are only God’s business. Because farm labor is so demanding, no one has time to worry about making converts, so before long, the neighborhood will have become “a strange religious medley.”
The “seceders” were Scottish Presbyterians who had broken away from the mainstream Church of Scotland in the mid-1700s. The Synod of Dort was a 17th-century church council whose teachings were definitive for the Dutch Reformed tradition. James views this “strange religious medley”—Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Dutch Reformed—as a positive step toward religious tolerance. He also implies that if it weren’t for the time-consuming demands of farming, there would be more religious conflict—another advantage of the farming life, from his perspective!
Themes
Over time, even within a generation, people become more religiously indifferent in this atmosphere; their children begin to intermarry, and they pass down their beliefs in a piecemeal fashion. Though some will continue to worship in a nearby church, others don’t bother. This religious mixture is one of the strangest things about America, and it’s hard to say how it will turn out. But James says that persecution, pride, and conflict are the main characteristics of religion, and those things simply don’t have a chance to gain a footing in America.
Again, Crèvecoeur’s deist biases are visible here—he disfavors organized religion, primarily because he sees it as a source of personal and societal conflict more than a good in its own right. So, to him, it’s a good thing that, because of America’s diversity, religious adherence is becoming watered down. Despite these biases, the historical details hold true to an extent—though America did continue to be a strongly religious country, adherence to specific denominations (and social divisions based on such adherence) became less of a big deal.
Themes
James returns to his discussion of frontier settlers. He thinks that living near the woods has a profound effect on such people. They are surrounded by wild animals that seek to destroy their crops and livestock, and this “wildness” turns frontiersmen primarily into hunters rather than farmers. This lifestyle makes them “ferocious, gloomy,” and disinclined to socialize with neighbors. Getting their sustenance from the woods instead of by cultivating the land gives these people a “lawless” character that, James says, is worse than the character of Indians. They tend to become lazy, and their children are poorly educated.
After digressing to talk about religion, James returns to his unflattering description of frontiersmen. Whereas James thinks farming has a healthy effect on one’s character, he clearly believes that a hunting-based lifestyle in the wilderness distorts people’s character. This is because frontiersmen aren’t subject to the same discipline as farmers and aren’t as connected to a local community. The fact that James thinks they are “worse” than Native Americans reveals his ambivalent, often racist attitudes toward indigenous Americans—attitudes that will become clearer in subsequent letters.
Themes
James holds that such settlers lack the knowledge they need in order to really prosper. They’ve gone from repression in Europe to too much freedom in the American woods. Since they lack Sunday services to attend, they don’t have any incentive to dress neatly or maintain decent manners. Those who’ve “generated altogether into the hunting state” are, according to James, the worst of Americans. If they spent more time tilling the ground, even their rough manners would be softened, and they’d be too busy to get into trouble. But a hunting lifestyle leaves too much time for idleness, which leads to vice; and the lifestyle leaves one susceptible to poverty, which leads weak characters to commit crimes. James remarks that it’s backwoods settlers who really need conversion, not Indians.
This passage provides nuance to James’s view of freedom. He doesn’t advocate for an unfettered, anything-goes freedom that’s not accountable to anyone else. Frontier settlers, in fact, are an example of excessive freedom, in his opinion. He thinks frontier conditions lead to a more primitive, uncouth, and unproductive lifestyle. The intensity of his prejudice is striking, but it underscores how much James prizes hard work as an American trait—he doesn’t believe frontiersmen work hard enough, therefore they’re bad Americans. When he speaks of conversion, James, who’s not very religious in a conventional sense, refers more to “civilizing” people than to changing their religion.
Themes
While not all frontier settlers are this contemptible, James concedes, many are, especially those of the Virginia and Carolina frontiers, which are the most distant from government. It’s no wonder that Indians have such a terrible impression of Europeans, given the drunken, greedy ones they most often have to deal with. These frontiersmen are too often deceptive and violent. This explains massacres like the one that took place in Virginia in 1774.
James refers to Lord Dunmore’s War, a conflict between American Indians (especially Seneca-Cayuga and Shawnee) and white settlers over disputed territories in what was then Virginia territory and what’s now western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio; he may be thinking especially of an occasion in May 1774, when a group of British colonists vengefully killed a group of Seneca, setting off months of bloody fighting.
Themes
In Europe, there are simply lords and tenants. In contrast, America is settled by freeholders who own and farm their land, who participate in their own government, and make their own laws. Because colonists are so fruitful, James suggests, they should be considered very useful subjects to their countries of origin. Those who would remain poor and idle in Europe can become productive and self-sufficient in America.
Though James clearly ranks some Americans more highly than others, he thinks Americans in general are more promising and productive than most of their European counterparts. Since the letters are aimed at a European audience, he is apparently trying to persuade his readers that they shouldn’t look down on American colonists, but should regard them as assets to their countries of origin instead.
Themes
It’s no wonder that America is so fascinating to Europeans. There’s enough variety here to please everyone, and bits of European language, manners, and place-names can be found everywhere you look. Americans and their towns are hospitable and charming. Europeans who can find no avenue for their talents in their countries of origin can find success in America. It’s not that everyone will become rich, but anyone of moderate ambition can do well enough to live comfortably.
James continues to highlight what he regards as some of America’s most interesting and inviting characteristics. He clearly wants more Europeans to emigrate to America, encouraging readers that America won’t seem too foreign to them and that their prospects might be much better in America than in Europe. While not every emigrant will become incredibly successful, James holds that America offers wider opportunities than Europe does.
Themes
As soon as poor Europeans arrive in America, they immediately benefit from plentiful food and ample opportunity. If a man is willing to work hard, he will soon find himself treated with greater respect than he has known before. Such treatment grants him self-respect and growing love for his new country. Within a few years, he probably owns a little land of his own. Before long, he becomes a naturalized citizen, whereas in his old country, he counted for nothing. Now he dreams bigger dreams for his children. Not every emigrant will succeed in this way, but the honest and hardworking can.
James argues that though establishing oneself in America takes a little time, an emigrant with the right attitude will begin to benefit almost right away. And those benefits aren’t just individual, but communal—as an emigrant builds a home and becomes embedded in his new society, the society grows and benefits, too. This situation also sets up future generations for greater success.
Themes
German emigrants tend to do very well in America because they’re quick learners and hard workers, and they own America’s finest mills. Scots and Irish emigrants aren’t quite as successful, despite their frugality, because their wives can’t work as hard as German women. The Irish, especially, drink and fight too much and aren’t as skilled at farming.
James’s varying attitudes about European emigrants show that he has plenty of biases to go around. Those biases especially show up in the area of productivity—he ranks Germans, Scots, and Irish according to their capacity to work hard, which he regards as the key to success in America.
Themes
The Scots tend to fare better at farming. James wants to close this letter by writing about “an honest Scotch Hebridean” who arrived in America in 1774. When James paid him a visit to see how his settlement was coming along, the Hebridean rejoiced in his family’s full bellies and fat livestock; he blessed the King and William Penn. The Scotsman explained that a New England neighbor had taught him how to split chestnut logs for shingles, and another will help him build a barn. James offered to teach him how to locate bees. He points out to F.B. that even England was once mostly woodland and that its people “were once painted like our neighbors.” In the future, America will progress and flourish much as England has.
Here, James introduces a character he will use as an example of emigrant success. The Hebridean exemplifies a hardworking, loyal newcomer who has established a better life for himself and his family in America. His neighbors’ generosity and help also exemplify good-natured American cooperation. When he refers to “painted […] neighbors,” James might be thinking of early Anglo-Saxon or even Celtic residents of the British Isles. His point is that Britain, too, has developed from relatively “primitive” beginnings, so surely America can look forward to similar progress.
Themes
James wonders what aspects of Scots’ background makes them generally so much more religious, honest, and hardworking than other people. From what he’s heard about Scotland, the Hebrides sound like they’re more fit for felons than the American colonies are. Britain has actually rewarded criminals by sending them here, and now, living under better conditions, those men have become upstanding citizens. Britain should send its good people to America and condemn its bad people to “the hell of Great Britain,” the Scottish Hebrides. A hardworking man, no matter how poor, can improve himself in America.
With his disparaging remarks about the Hebrides (a group of remote islands off Scotland’s west coast), James again offers opinions that don’t seem well-founded, to put it mildly—especially considering he admits his impression is based on hearsay rather than firsthand knowledge! However, it mostly shows James’s eagerness to make America seem like the best possible land for an emigrant wanting to improve their life.
Themes
