Letters from An American Farmer by Crevecoeur

Letters From An American Farmer

by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur

What then is the American, this new man?…He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims. (from “Letters from an American Farmer, Letter III,” 1782)

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur
From Lettres d’un cultivateur américain (the French edition of Letters from an American Farmer), published by Cuchet in Paris, 1784, via Wikimedia Commons.

• ADVERTISEMENT AND DEDICATION
• LETTER I: INTRODUCTION. . . 1
• LETTER II: OF THE SITUATION, FEELINGS, AND PLEASURES OF AN AMERICAN FARMER. . . 22
• LETTER III: WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?. . . 48
• LETTER IV: DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF NATUCKET, WITH THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, POLICY, AND TRADE OF THE INHABITANTS. . . 119
• LETTER V: CUSTOMARY EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE INHABITANTS OF NANTUCKET. . . 156
• LETTER VI: DESCRIPTION OF THE INHABITANTS OF MARTHA’S VINEYARD, AND OF THE WHALE FISHERY. . . 165
• LETTER VII: MANNERS AND CUSTOMS AT NANTUCKET. . . 183
• LETTER VIII: PECULIAR CUSTOMS AT NANTUCKET. . . 202
• LETTER IX: DESCRIPTION OF CHARLES-TOWN; THOUGHTS ON SLAVERY; ON PHYSICAL EVIL; A MELANCHOLY SCENE. . . 222
• LETTER X: OF SNAKES; AND ON THE HUMMING-BIRD. . . 246
• LETTER XI: FROM MR. IW–N AL–Z, A RUSSIAN GENTLEMAN, DESCRIBING THE VISIT HE PAID, AT MY REQUEST, TO MR. JOHN BERTRAM, THE CLEBRATED PENNSYLVANIA BOTANIST. . . 258
• LETTER XII: DISTRESSES OF A FRONTIER-MAN. . . 281
• APPENDIX I. . . 331
• APPENDIX II. . . 349
• NOTES…352

By the University of Virginia American Studies Program 2002-2003.

Digitized and first spell-checked by Jill Spearman 05/01/95.

Converted to html by Eric J. Gislason 02/05/96 .

Copy-edited and overall design and construction: Eric J. Gislason 02/155/96.

Copy-edited and re-designed by AS@UVA 11/04/03. This version available from American studies at the University of Virginia.
Charlottesville, Va.

Freely available for non-commercial use provided that this header is included in its entirety with any copy distributed

2013: Some additional copy-editing was done by Excellence in Literature staff to improve readability, while leaving intact the original creative spelling; a few notes were added in italic brackets [like this] to clarify things for the modern student.