Letters From An American Farmer

What does it truly mean to declare I am an American? Is it just another way to say I am an inhabitant of America? If an early American immigrant had declared I am an American what would the phrase have meant? Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, an influential writer and farmer from the late 1700s to early 1800s, wrote Letters from an American Farmer, in which he answered the grand question, What is an American? Of the many elements and attributes of early American life as discussed by Crevecoeur, freedom, capitalism, and equality are three that truly defined what it meant to be an early American.

Early Americans were not just Europeans who lived in America. They were people who were free from Europe. Previously, European immigrants had to pay dues
Many immigrants came to America with nothing but the shirt on their backs, but because of capitalism they were able to prosper. Individuals came to America to farm their own land and run their own enterprises. Crevecoeur felt that because the early Americans worked for themselves, not a lord, king, or government, they were very motivated. Crevecoeur explains this here:Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor; his labor 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. (25-26)Crevecoeur felt that in early America men could be truly equal. Crevecoeur said, Formerly they were not numbered in any civil lists of their country, except in those of the poor; here they rank as citizens (24). There was little difference between the richest and poorest in Crevecoeurs eyes. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe (23). In early America, a rich lawyer would have the same modest luxuries as a poor farmer. Crevecoeur also felt that ethnic background was not an issue in early America. A Dutch blacksmith and an Irish potato farmer were both American equals in his eyes. Crevecoeur talks about this here: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