Letters from an American Farmer: Letter 1 Summary & Analysis

Just because James received Mr. F.B. with hospitality when he visited America, why would Mr. F.B. expect James to be able to write him good letters? For five weeks, his guest F.B. taught James all about European countries, especially France, which James knew little about—including geography, farming, art, and trade. So the gratitude should be on James’s side. The letters Mr. F.B wants in return require talent that James doesn’t possess. He might be able to describe American farming, manners, and customs based on his own observations, but he isn’t very educated or knowledgeable beyond that.

James’s father left him a few books, but how much could James have learned from Scottish theology, the Navigation of Sir Francis Drake, and the History of Queen Elizabeth? He occasionally chats with a local minister, but that man, too, is busy with farming and sermon preparation. His wife, whom James always consults before he does anything, laughs at the whole idea. She asks if James isn’t ashamed to write to a man who has studied at Cambridge and who has traveled extensively in both Europe and the colonies. She thinks F.B. must be joking, but after both she and the minister friend study the letter carefully, they agree that James’s correspondent is in earnest.

James finally resolves to write, but he wonders how to gather and organize everything he knows. His friend, F.B., has pointed out that writing is just “talking on paper,” so his minister friend suggests that James simply write down what he’d say if F.B. were actually here. Even if James’s letters aren’t elegant, his friend points out, “they will smell of the woods and be a little wild,” and F.B. will surely learn something from them. After all, everyone loves “exotics”—that’s why so many people love to visit Italy to look at old ruins. The minister thinks, however, it would make more sense if people visited America instead, where there are so many “humble rudiments and embryos of societies” appearing everywhere.

James asks his friend to go on. The minister suggests that an “enlightened Englishman” would learn the most from an account of what makes Americans’ lives happy, how they expand their settlements, and convert the wilderness into farmable land and civilized communities. In Italy, the traveler mostly encounters ancient history. America, in contrast, is “modern, peaceful, and benign.” No wars have been fought here, and there’s no oppressive feudalism. Nature supplies ample food to endless newcomers. All of this is far more interesting and entertaining than “the musty ruins of Rome.” Here, the traveler can imagine the promising future instead of the dreary past.

Here in America, the minister goes on, a visitor can witness the “ancient dignity” of the human species. The laws here are simple and just, and people are focused on cultivation, so the country as a whole flourishes. An English observer would find America’s harmony and hospitality inviting. The minister further muses that so far, Americans have focused their energy on agriculture; it will be the job of future generations to mine for riches beneath the earth.

James is impressed by the minister’s eloquence. The minister assures James that his letters will get better and better with practice, and anyway, their novelty in coming from “the edge of the great wilderness” will hold great appeal. He adds that James wants one of his children to become a clergyman, so perhaps Mr. F.B. can help with that someday—“it is good for American farmers to have friends even in England.” James simply has to write down his normal way of speaking.

James says that the minister has persuaded him. He will write as best he can and let Mr. F.B. separate the good from the bad. After all, it’s a question of being hospitable, just like when F.B. visited America. His wife dislikes this comparison, though, since she thinks they did the best they could with poor materials, forcing the poor man to live on fruit-pies. James, she argues, needs to know what materials he has on hand, “and then whether thee canst dish them up.” James responds that, for once, his wife is wrong; he can’t know what he’s capable of until he tries. The minister encourages James that he only became good at preaching through practice, so James should simply get started.

James finally agrees, though he says he will read his letters aloud to his wife and the minister before he sends them. The minister further encourages James that he will probably be a more interesting writer as an American farmer than he would be if he were a Cambridge scholar. To Mr. F.B., James will seem like an exotic American plant. In Europe, most plants are meticulously cultivated. The minister encourages James to let F.B. see “a few American wild-cherry trees” in all their natural splendor. He points out that even a farmer thinks, and he ought to share his thoughts on paper. The minister himself has composed many good sermons while ploughing his land. Farmers have the privilege of silence and contemplation in a way that other workers don’t. James should persevere with the same focused and determined attitude he would take to ploughing.

James’s wife remains skeptical. If it ever got out that James were writing letters to a great man in England, she argues, people would gossip about his ambitions to become an author and the effect that dream would have on his family. She urges James to consider the potential impact on his time and reputation. He would be accused of both “idleness and vain notions,” of wanting to become a politician, and of “telling the king’s men abundance of things.” She would rather blend in with their country neighbors, the way they do now. Englishmen have leisure to write letters, but writing doesn’t help farmers survive. So James should keep his writing as secret as possible. Otherwise, he’ll become known as the “scribbling farmer.” It’s much better to be known as a well-fed and comfortable family.

James recounts this conversation so that his correspondent can’t accuse him of presumption. Now Mr. F.B. can see James’s motives and misgivings. There’s nothing left for him to do but write. F.B. must tell him what subjects to write about, keeping in mind that he is only a simple farmer. If he had wanted the perspective of a politician, a naturalist, or a man of taste, then he could have asked them. But since he’s sought out “a cultivator of the earth” and “simple citizen” instead, he must accept James’s letters as they come.