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
The best way to understand how a group of people thinks and lives, James writes, is to look at how they educate their children. In Nantucket, most households have a calm, moderate, affectionate atmosphere, and children learn by example to prefer simplicity and reject ostentation as “sinful.” They are also influenced by their parents to be prudent, frugal, and always usefully occupied.
James’s reflections on his own life have often included his hopes for his children’s future, so it makes sense that he would look at Nantucket child-rearing practices to help him understand the place as a whole. Here, of course, his description sounds somewhat idealized—it’s doubtful if any children are always prudent or usefully occupied!—but it still shows what the people of Nantucket value.
Themes
If a family has wealth, the children are taught to save and to spend in moderation; if they’re not wealthy, they’re taught how to work. At church, they are taught the central tenets of Christianity. Like all Christian groups, the Quakers have their distinctions, such as their emphasis on nonviolence, meekness, and sobriety. At school, children study reading and writing until the age of 12; then, boys generally become cooper’s apprentices, since that is the island’s second most common trade. Later, at 14, they are sent to sea and gain hands-on experience in every aspect of running a ship.
Whether a family is relatively affluent or not, childhood on Nantucket is geared toward preparing for a productive adulthood. Because of Nantucket’s unique situation, young boys don’t get too many career options; like James taking on the farm he’s inherited, young men here are expected to pursue the paths laid out for them, doing their part to build up the community. Even the Quaker values they’re taught, like submission to authority and avoiding drunkenness, could be read as reinforcing broader social expectations.
Themes
Earlier in the island’s history, as the whaling trade was getting established, the southern part of the island was divided into four parts. A company of six fishermen was assigned to each part. One fisherman would watch for spouting whales, and as soon as he spotted one, the six men would pile into their narrow whale-boat and pursue their prey. With time and success, they were able to purchase larger boats and sail farther from shore, even venturing to Cape Breton, Newfoundland, and points farther north. Nowadays, their confidence is so great that they talk of exploring the South Sea. Nantucket has become North America’s primary source of whale oil and related products.
James outlines the development of Nantucket’s whaling trade not because he’s an expert on the industry (or expects his readers to be interested in the minute details), but to show how hard work, cooperation, and ingenuity—not to mention daring—have brought Nantucket to dominate this trade. The industry’s explosion illustrates Nantucket’s overall remarkable growth from humble origins to prosperous community.
Themes
Commerce (“the simple art of a reciprocal supply of wants”) in general is understood and highly valued on Nantucket. Whaling vessels conduct transport and trade between Nantucket and England and the West Indian Islands, and people are always on the lookout for secondary money-making schemes. They know the cheapest way to get lumber from Maine, tar from North Carolina, and other products from up and down the colonies, exchanging cod-fish and West Indian produce for these items. In turn, they have been able to build better ships and fisheries.
James suggests here that no industry, and by extension no single community, can thrive in isolation. Communities up and down the Eastern seaboard, and even across the ocean, exchange goods with Nantucket whalers, to everyone’s mutual benefit (ideally, anyway). Ironically, then, Nantucket’s very isolation compels its people to venture out into the world in order to build prosperity.
Themes
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James repeats the point that if it weren’t for the poverty of Nantucket’s soil, the people here probably wouldn’t be so enterprising. For comparison, the people of the Vineyard, the neighboring island, are just as hardworking and just as well situated for fishing, but since they enjoy fertile soil there, they aren’t as famous for their seafaring. Since James visited this island on his way back to the mainland, he’ll write a brief description of it, too.
James reiterates that because Nantucket isn’t suitable for farming, its settlers were forced to rise to the challenge and provide for themselves in more adventurous ways. The people of Martha’s Vineyard could be just as successful in the fishing industry, but since they can afford not to be, they aren’t. It’s another example of the natural environment shaping human enterprise.
Themes
