Fullerton College Crevecoeur Letters History Discussion
Hector St. Jean Crevecoeur was a
Frenchman who moved to New York in the 1750s. In the 1770s, he began
writing a series of letters from the perspective of a fictional narrator
that offered his impressions of life in America. As you read Letter
III, think about the question in its title, “What is an American?”
According to Crevecoeur, what was it about colonial life in British
America that made these colonists distinctly “American”? On the other
hand, what British (or, given the diversity of the middle colonies, at
least European) qualities did they maintain? How well do his
descriptions of colonists square with everything else we’ve learned
about colonial British America? As you read Letter IX, think about how
his impression of South Carolina contrasts with his views of the
northern colonies. How does this letter complicate his ideas on “what
is an American”? Could South Carolinians be equally “American,” given
his criteria in Letter III? Reading Questions:1) For each of the Crevecoeur letters, what do you think is his primary thesis/argument?2) What, according to Crevecoeur, does it mean to be “American”?Crevecoeur clearly believes there is a distinct new American culture.Do you agree?Or are the Americans he presents just the same old Europeans in a different environment?3) How do his views of being “American” compare on this same topic?Do his views generally align?Or do they contradict each other?4)
Do the South Carolina planters in Letter IX meet the criteria for being
“American” that he lays out when describing the middle colonies in
Letter III?5) What are Crevecoeur’s views of slavery?Northern slavery vs. Southern slavery?What do you think his understanding of “race” is? LETTER III.I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which
must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an
enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent. He must
greatly rejoice that he lived at a time to see this fair country
discovered and settled; he must necessarily feel a share of national
pride, when he views the chain of settlements which embellishes these
extended shores. When he says to himself, this is the work of my
countrymen, who, when convulsed by factions, afflicted by a variety of
miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took refuge here. They
brought along with them their national genius, to which they principally
owe what liberty they enjoy, and what substance they possess. Here he
sees the industry of his native country displayed in a new manner, and
traces in their works the embryos of all the arts, sciences, and
ingenuity which nourish in Europe. Here he beholds fair cities,
substantial villages, extensive fields, an immense country filled with
decent houses, good roads, orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an
hundred years ago all was wild, woody, and uncultivated! What a train of
pleasing ideas this fair spectacle must suggest; it is a prospect which
must inspire a good citizen with the most heartfelt pleasure. . . .He is arrived on a new continent; a modern society offers itself to
his contemplation, different from what he had hitherto seen. It is not
composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess everything, and of a
herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratical families, no
courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible
power giving to a few a very visible one; no great manufacturers
employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the
poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe. Some
few towns excepted, we are all tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to
West Florida. We are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense
territory, communicating with each other by means of good roads and
navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild government, all
respecting the laws, without dreading their power, because they are
equitable. We are all animated with the spirit of an industry which is
unfettered and unrestrained, because each person works for himself. If
he travels through our rural districts he views not the hostile castle,
and the haughty mansion, contrasted with the clay-built hut and
miserable cabin, where cattle and men help to keep each other warm, and
dwell in meanness, smoke, and indigence. A pleasing uniformity of decent
competence appears throughout our habitations. The meanest of our
log-houses is a dry and comfortable habitation. Lawyer or merchant are
the fairest titles our towns afford; that of a farmer is the only
appellation of the rural inhabitants of our country. It must take some
time ere he can reconcile himself to our dictionary, which is but short
in words of dignity, and names of honour. . . . We have no princes, for
whom we toil, starve, and bleed: we are the most perfect society now
existing in the world. Here man is free as he ought to be. . . .The next wish of this traveller will be to know whence came all these
people? they are a mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch,
Germans, and Swedes. From this promiscuous breed, that race now called
Americans have arisen. The [New England] provinces must indeed be
excepted, as being the unmixed descendants of Englishmen. . . .In this great American asylum, the poor of Europe have by some means
met together, and in consequence of various causes; to what purpose
should they ask one another what countrymen they are? Alas, two thirds
of them had no country. Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and
starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching
penury; can that man call England or any other kingdom his country? A
country that had no bread for him, whose fields procured him no harvest,
who met with nothing but the frowns of the rich, the severity of the
laws, with jails and punishments; who owned not a single foot of the
extensive surface of this planet? No! urged by a variety of motives,
here they came. Every thing has tended to regenerate them; new laws, a
new mode of living, a new social system; here they are become men: in
Europe they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegetative mould,
and refreshing showers; they withered, and were mowed down by want,
hunger, and war; but now by the power of transplantation, like all other
plants they have taken root and flourished! Formerly they were not
numbered in any civil lists of their country, except in those of the
poor; here they rank as citizens. . . . . They receive ample rewards for
their labours; these accumulated rewards procure them lands; those
lands confer on them the title of freemen, and to that title every
benefit is affixed which men can possibly require. This is the great
operation daily performed by our laws. From whence proceed these laws?
From our government. Whence the government? It is derived from the
original genius and strong desire of the people ratified and confirmed
by the crown. This is the great chain which links us all…What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where
he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few
kindred as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his
country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and
consequence: Ubi panis ibi patria [“Where there is bread, there is my
country”], is the motto of all emigrants. What then is the American,
this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an
European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no
other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was
an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman,
and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. 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 becomes an
American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater.
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose
labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.
Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them
that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry which began long
since in the east; they will finish the great circle. The Americans
were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one
of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which
will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates
they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love this country much
better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here
the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his
labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, SELF-INTEREST: can
it want a stronger allurement? . . . The American is a new man, who
acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and
form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence,
penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different
nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.—This is an American. . . .Each province has its own [distinct characteristics], founded on the
government, climate, mode of husbandry, customs, and peculiarity of
circumstances. Europeans submit insensibly to these great powers, and
become, in the course of a few generations, not only Americans in
general, but either Pennsylvanians, Virginians, or provincials under
some other name. . . . The inhabitants of Canada, Massachusetts, the
middle provinces, the southern ones will be as different as their
climates; their only points of unity will be those of religion and
language.As I have endeavoured to show you how Europeans become Americans; it
may not be disagreeable to show you likewise how the various Christian
sects introduced, wear out, and how religious indifference becomes
prevalent. When any considerable number of a particular sect happen to
dwell contiguous to each other, they immediately erect a temple, and
there worship the Divinity agreeably to their own peculiar ideas. Nobody
disturbs them. . . . they are at liberty to make proselytes if they
can, and to build a meeting and to follow the dictates of their
consciences; for neither the government nor any other power interferes.
If they are peaceable subjects, and are industrious, what is it to their
neighbours how and in what manner they think fit to address their
prayers to the Supreme Being? But if the sectaries are not settled close
together, if they are mixed with other denominations, their zeal will
cool for want of fuel, and will be extinguished in a little time. Then
the Americans become as to religion, what they are as to country, allied
to all. In them the name of Englishman, Frenchman, and European is
lost, and in like manner, the strict modes of Christianity as practised
in Europe are lost also. This effect will extend itself still farther
hereafter, and though this may appear to you as a strange idea, yet it
is a very true one. . . .Thus all sects are mixed as well as all nations; thus religious
indifference is imperceptibly disseminated from one end of the continent
to the other; which is at present one of the strongest characteristics
of the Americans. . . . Persecution, religious pride, the love of
contradiction, are the food of what the world commonly calls religion.
These motives have ceased here. . . .Ye poor Europeans, ye, who sweat, and work for the great— ye, who are
obliged to give so many sheaves to the church, so many to your lords,
so many to your government, and have hardly any left for yourselves—ye,
who are held in less estimation than favourite hunters or useless
lap-dogs—ye, who only breathe the air of nature, because it cannot be
withheld from you; it is here that ye can conceive the possibility of
those feelings I have been describing.LETTER IX.CHARLES-TOWN is, in the north, what Lima is in the south; both are
Capitals of the richest provinces of their respective hemispheres. . . .
Carolina [exhibits] a display of riches and luxury . . . far superior
to what are to be seen in our northern towns. . . . It is called the
centre of our beau monde, and is always filled with the richest planters
of the province, who resort hither in quest of health and pleasure. . .
. The round of pleasure, and the expences of those citizens' tables,
are much superior to what you would imagine: indeed the growth of this
town and province has been astonishingly rapid. . . . The heat of the
climate, which is sometimes very great in the interior parts of the
country, is always temperate in Charles-Town; though sometimes when they
have no sea breezes the sun is too powerful. The climate renders
excesses of all kinds very dangerous, particularly those of the table;
and yet, insensible or fearless of danger, they live on, and enjoy a
short and a merry life: the rays of their sun seem to urge them
irresistibly to dissipation and pleasure. . . . An European at his first
arrival must be greatly surprised when he sees the elegance of their
houses, their sumptuous furniture, as well as the magnificence of their
tables. Can he imagine himself in a country, the establishment of which
is so recent? . . .While all is joy, festivity, and happiness in Charles-Town, would you
imagine that scenes of misery overspread in the country? Their ears by
habit are become deaf, their hearts are hardened; they neither see,
hear, nor feel for the woes of their poor slaves, from whose painful
labours all their wealth proceeds. Here the horrors of slavery, the
hardship of incessant toils, are unseen; and no one thinks with
compassion of those showers of sweat and of tears which from the bodies
of Africans, daily drop, and moisten the ground they till.The cracks of the whip urging these miserable beings to excessive
labour, are far too distant from the gay Capital to be heard. The chosen
race eat, drink, and live happy, while the unfortunate one grubs up the
ground, raises indigo, or husks the rice; exposed to a sun full as
scorching as their native one; without the support of good food, without
the cordials of any chearing liquor. This great contrast has often
afforded me subjects of the most afflicting meditation. On the one side,
behold a people enjoying all that life affords most bewitching and
pleasurable, without labour, without fatigue, hardly subjected to the
trouble of wishing. With gold, dug from Peruvian mountains, they order
vessels to the coasts of Guinea; by virtue of that gold, wars, murders,
and devastations are committed in some harmless, peaceable African
neighbourhood, where dwelt innocent people, who even knew not but that
all men were black. The daughter torn from her weeping mother, the child
from the wretched parents, the wife from the loving husband; whole
families swept away and brought through storms and tempests to this rich
metropolis! There, arranged like horses at a fair, they are branded
like cattle, and then driven to toil, to starve, and to languish for a
few years on the different plantations of these citizens. And for whom
must they work ? For persons they know not, and who have no other power
over them than that of violence; no other right than what this accursed
metal has given them! Strange order of things! Oh, Nature, where art
thou?--Are not these blacks thy children as well as we? . . . Day after
day they drudge on without any prospect of ever reaping for themselves;
they are obliged to devote their lives, their limbs, their will, and
every vital exertion to swell the wealth of masters; who look not upon
them with half the kindness and affection with which they consider their
dogs and horses. . . .If negroes are permitted to become fathers, this fatal indulgence
only tends to increase their misery. . . . They have no time, like us,
tenderly to rear their helpless offspring, to nurse them on their knees,
to enjoy the delight of being parents. Their paternal fondness is
embittered by considering, that if their children live, they must live
to be slaves like themselves . . . the mothers must fasten them on their
backs, and, with this double load, follow their husbands in the fields,
where they too often hear no other sound than that of the voice or whip
of the task-master, and the cries of their infants, broiling in the
sun. . . .Thus planters get rich; so raw, so unexperienced am I in this mode of
life, that were I to be possessed of a plantation, and my slaves
treated as in general they are here, never could I rest in peace; my
sleep would be perpetually disturbed by a retrospect of the frauds
committed in Africa, in order to entrap them. . . . Can it be possible
that the force of custom should ever make me deaf to all these
reflections, and as insensible to the injustice of that trade, and to
their miseries, as the rich inhabitants of this town seem to be? What
then is man; this being who boasts so much of the excellence and dignity
of his nature, among that variety of unscrutable mysteries, of
unsolvable problems, with which he is surrounded? . . . The only
possible chance of any alleviation depends on the humour of the
planters, who, bred in the midst of slaves, learn from the example of
their parents to despise them; and seldom conceive either from religion
or philosophy, any ideas that tend to make their fate less calamitous. .
. .We have slaves likewise in our northern provinces; I hope the time
draws near when they will be all emancipated: but how different their
lot, how different their situation, in every possible respect! They
enjoy as much liberty as their masters, they are as well clad, and as
well fed; in health and sickness they are tenderly taken care of; they
live under the same roof, and are, truly speaking, a part of our
families. Many of them are taught to read and write, and are well
instructed in the principles of religion; they are the companions of our
labours, and treated as such; they enjoy many perquisites, many
established holidays, and are not obliged to work more than white
people. They marry where inclination leads them; visit their wives every
week; are as decently clad as the common people; they are indulged in
educating, cherishing, and chastising their children, who are taught
subordination to them as to their lawful parents: in short, they
participate in many of the benefits of our society, without being
obliged to bear any of its burthens. They are fat, healthy, and hearty,
and far from repining at their fate; they think themselves happier than
many of the lower class whites. . . .We are told, it is true, that slavery cannot be so repugnant to human
nature as we at first imagine, because it has been practised in all
ages, and in all nations: the Lacedemonians [i.e., Spartans] themselves,
those great assertors of liberty, conquered the Helotes with the design
of making them their slaves; the Romans, whom we consider as our
masters in civil and military policy, lived in the exercise of the most
horrid oppression; they conquered to plunder and to enslave. . . . Is
there then no superintending power who conducts the moral operations of
the world, as well as the physical? The same sublime hand which guides
the planets round the sun with so much exactness, which preserves the
arrangement of the whole with such exalted wisdom and paternal care, and
prevents the vast system from falling into confusion; doth it abandon
mankind to all the errors, the follies, and the miseries, which their
most frantic rage, and their most dangerous vices and passions can
produce? . . .The following scene will I hope account for these melancholy
reflections, and apologize for the gloomy thoughts with which I have
filled this letter: my mind is, and always has been, oppressed since I
became a witness to it. I was not long since invited to dine with a
planter who lived three miles from ---, where he then resided. In order
to avoid the heat of the sun, I resolved to go on foot, sheltered in a
small path, leading through a pleasant wood. I was leisurely travelling
along, attentively examining some peculiar plants which I had collected,
when all at once I felt the air strongly agitated; though the day was
perfectly calm and sultry. I immediately cast my eyes toward the cleared
ground, from which I was but at a small distance, in order to see
whether it was not occasioned by a sudden shower; when at that instant a
sound resembling a deep rough voice, uttered, as I thought, a few
inarticulate monosyllables. Alarmed and surprized, I precipitately
looked all round, when I perceived at about six rods distance something
resembling a cage, suspended to the limbs of a tree; all the branches of
which appeared covered with large birds of prey, fluttering about, and
anxiously endeavouring to perch on the cage. Actuated by an involuntary
motion of my hands, more than by any design of my mind, I fired at them;
they all flew to a short distance, with a most hideous noise: when,
horrid to think and painful to repeat, I perceived a negro, suspended in
the cage, and left there to expire! I shudder when I recollect that the
birds had already picked out his eyes, his cheek bones were bare; his
arms had been attacked in several places, and his body seemed covered
with a multitude of wounds. From the edges of the hollow sockets and
from the lacerations with which he was disfigured, the blood slowly
dropped, and tinged the ground beneath. No sooner were the birds flown,
than swarms of insects covered the whole body of this unfortunate
wretch, eager to feed on his mangled flesh and to drink his blood. I
found myself suddenly arrested by the power of affright and terror; my
nerves were convulsed; I trembled, I stood motionless, involuntarily
contemplating the fate of this negro, in all its dismal latitude. The
living spectre, though deprived of his eyes, could still distinctly
hear, and in his uncouth dialect begged me to give him some water to
allay his thirst. Humanity herself would have recoiled back with horror;
she would have balanced whether to lessen such reliefless distress, or
mercifully with one blow to end this dreadful scene of agonizing torture
! Had I had a ball in my gun, I certainly should have despatched him ;
but finding myself unable to perform so kind an office, I sought, though
trembling, to relieve him as well as I could. A shell ready fixed to a
pole, which had been used by some negroes, presented itself to me;
filled it with water, and with trembling hands I guided it to the
quivering lips of the wretched sufferer. Urged by the irresistible power
of thirst, he endeavoured to meet it, as he instinctively guessed its
approach by the noise it made in passing through the bars of the cage.
"Tanke, you white man, tanke you, pute some poy'son and give me." "How
long have you been hanging there?" I asked him. "Two days, and me no
die; the birds, the birds; aaah me!" Oppressed with the reflections
which this shocking spectacle afforded me, I mustered strength enough to
walk away, and soon reached the house at which I intended to dine.
There I heard that the reason for this slave being thus punished, was on
account of his having killed the overseer of the plantation. They told
me that the laws of self-preservation rendered such executions
necessary; and supported the doctrine of slavery with the arguments
generally made use of to justify the practice; with the repetition of
which I shall not trouble you at present. Adieu.