What Is an American ?
Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur
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? Wives and
children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and
frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are
to arise to feed and to clothe them all; without any part being claimed, either by a
despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord. I lord religion demands but little
of him; a small
a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God; can he refuse these?
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.
British America is divided into many provinces, forming a large association,
scattered along a coast 1500 miles extent and about 200 wide. This society I would
fain examine, at least such as it appears in the middle provinces; if it does not
afford that variety of tinges and gradations which may be observed in Europe, we
have colours peculiar to ourselves. For instance, it is natural to conceive that those
who live near the sea, must be very different from those who live in the woods; the
intermediate space will afford a separate and distinct class.
Men are like plants; the goodness and flavour of the fruit proceeds from the
peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we
derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey,
the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment.
Here you will find but few crimes; these have acquired as yet no root among us. I
wish I were able to trace all my ideas; if my ignorance prevents me from
describing them properly, I hope I shall be able to delineate a few of the outlines,
which are all I propose. Those who live near the sea, feed more on fish than on
flesh, and often encounter that boisterous element. This renders them more bold
and enterprising; this leads them to neglect the confined occupations of the land.
They see and converse with a variety of people; their intercourse with mankind
becomes extensive. The sea inspires them with a love of traffic, a desire of
transporting produce from one place to another; and leads them to a variety of
resources which supply the place of labour. Those who inhabit the middle
settlements, by far the most numerous, must be very different; the simple
cultivation of the earth purifies them, but the indulgences of the government, the
soft remonstrances of religion, the rank of independent freeholders, must
necessarily inspire them with sentiments, very little known in Europe among
people of the same class. What do I say? Europe has no such class of men; the
early knowledge they acquire, the early bargains they make, give them a great
degree of sagacity. As freemen, they will be litigious; pride and obstinacy are often
the cause of law suits; the nature of our laws and governments may be another. As
citizens it is easy to imagine, that they will carefully read the newspapers, enter
into every political disquisition, freely blame or censure governors and others. As
farmers they will be careful and anxious to get as much as they can, because what
they get is their own. As northern men they will love the chearful cup. As
Christians, religion curbs them not in their opinions; the general indulgence leaves
every one to think for themselves in spiritual matters; the laws inspect our actions,
our thoughts are left to God. Industry, good living, selfishness, litigiousness,
country politics, the pride of freemen, religious indifference, are their
characteristics. If you recede still farther from the sea, you will come into more
modern settlements; they exhibit the same strong lineaments, in a ruder
appearance. Religion seems to have still less influence, and their manners are less
improved.
Now we arrive near the great woods, near the last inhabited districts; there men
seem to be placed still farther beyond the reach of government, which in some
measure leaves them to themselves. How can it pervade every corner; as they were
driven there by misfortunes, necessity of beginnings, desire of acquiring large
tracks of land, idleness, frequent want of economy, ancient debts; the re-union of
such people does not afford a very pleasing spectacle. When discord, want of unity
and friendship; when either drunkenness or idleness prevail in such remote
districts; contention, inactivity, and wretchedness must ensue
There are not the same remedies to these evils as in a long established community.
The few magistrates they have, are in general little better than the rest; they are
often in a perfect state of war; that of man against man, sometimes decided by
blows, sometimes by means of the law; that of man against every wild inhabitant
of these venerable woods, of which they are come to dispossess them. There men
appear to be no better than carnivorous animals of a superior rank,
living on the flesh of wild animals when they can catch them, and when they are
not able, they subsist on grain. He who wish to see America in its proper light, and
have a true idea of its feeble beginnings barbarous rudiments, must visit our ex
tended line of frontiers where the last settlers dwell, and where he may see the first
labours of the mode of clearing the earth, in their different appearances; where men
are wholly left dependent on their native tempers and on the spur of uncertain
industry, which often fails when not sanctified by the efficacy of a few moral rules.
There, remote from the power of example, and check of shame, many families
exhibit the most hideous parts of our society. They are a kind of forlorn hope,
preceding by ten or twelve years the most respectable army of veterans which
come after them. In that space, prosperity will polish some, vice and the law will
drive off the rest, who uniting again with others like themselves will recede still
farther; making room for more industrious people, who will finish their
improvements, convert the loghouse into a convenient habitation, and rejoicing
that the first heavy labours are finished, will change in a few years that hitherto
barbarous country into a fine fertile, well regulated district. Such is our progress,
such is the march of the Europeans toward the interior parts of this continent. In all
societies there are off-casts; this impure part serves as our precursors or pioneers;
my father himself was one of that class, but he came upon honest principles, and
was therefore one of the few who held fast; by good conduct and temperance, he
transmitted to me his fair inheritance, when not above one in fourteen of his
contemporaries had the same good fortune ,Forty years ago this smiling country
was thus inhabited; it is now purged, a general decency of manners prevails
throughout, and such has been the fate of our best countries. Exclusive of those
general characteristics, each province has its own, 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. Whoever traverses the continent must easily
observe those strong differences, which will grow more evident in time. 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.
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