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Summary
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
To the First Edition, 1782. This collection of letters was written by the American farmer whose name is on them (J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur). He wrote them to satisfy a friend’s curiosity and published them to satisfy England’s appetite for news of America. Their authenticity is easy to determine from their plain style and novice inaccuracies.
The first section of the book contains the publisher’s “advertisements,” which serve as forewords for the book as a whole. Although the tone of this first advertisement might sound defensive or exaggeratedly humble, it fits with the style of the time—the author explains why he wrote this book and argues that its weaknesses actually help establish his honesty and trustworthiness as an author. He also suggests that English people are especially curious about their country’s former colony. The book did, in fact, have its first and greatest success in Europe.
Themes
St. John has personally witnessed the events that have “deformed the face of America.” He didn’t want England and the colonies to separate, and indeed, that event has driven him out of the comfortable situation described in his early letters. The conflict is drawing to a close, and hopefully the two countries will reconcile.
In the late 1770s, St. John de Crèvecoeur was jailed in British-occupied New York City on the suspicion of being an American spy, while ironically, his sympathies lay more with England than with the revolution. After that, he never fully rebuilt the comfortable life he’d led before. These events no doubt shape St. John’s overall negative attitude about the war that “deformed the face of America.”
Themes
To the Second Edition, 1783. Since the first edition was published, St. John has accepted a job in New York, so it is unlikely he will have time to compile a second volume of letters anytime soon.
Though the book enjoyed publishing success in Europe and presumably created demand for a sequel, St. John had taken up diplomatic work by this time and never did write a follow-up volume.
Themes
To the Abbé Raynal, F.R.S. St. John, a humble American farmer, presumes to address the Abbé from the other side of the Atlantic. He wishes his letters were worthy of that honor. A few years ago, he read Abbé Raynal’s book on political history and was moved by its plea for the humanity of enslaved African people, and its view of America as a refuge for the distressed. The Abbé’s ideas inspired him to write, and he now begs the Abbé to receive these letters as a tribute. After all, even though he’s an American and only a farmer with no title, shouldn’t he be allowed to join in the intellectual brotherhood of which the Abbé is part? This dedication is signed by J. Hector St. John of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
This section of the 1783 Advertisement dedicates the edition to the Abbé Raynal, an 18th-century French intellectual whose popular book History of the East and West Indies strongly condemned slavery. This book is quite likely the historical volume Crèvecoeur mentions that moved him so profoundly and inspired him to begin writing himself. Again, he emphasizes the point that he’s not educated and titled like the Abbé, a formulaic statement of humility that paradoxically lets him claim standing in the literary world.
Themes
Literary Devices
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