Discussions

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in ter est ing document. They, however, have retained their wampum. The meaning of a belt is remembered by the Indian Tribes in this manner. The whole body frequently assem ble, and being seated, each piece is passed from hand to hand, every person repeating the words as he takes it. Then again the color conveys some idea. A blood- colored hatchet readily gives an impres- sion of something warlike, while white speaks of peace.1

1791

1. Aupaumut describes a peace- building pro cess resembling the Iroquois Condolence Ritual, a diplo- matic ritual used by the Iroquois and other Native groups.

J. HECTOR ST. JOHN DE CRÈVECOEUR 1735–1813

J . Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur is a writer with a divided reputation, as well as a mysterious and fascinating past. Like Benjamin Franklin, another master of irony and disguise, Crèvecoeur rewards the reader’s close attention but only rarely provides "rm conclusions about the author’s views and intentions. In “What Is an American?”— the most famous essay in his internationally acclaimed Letters from an American Farmer (1782)— Crèvecoeur offers an idealistic portrait of the soon- to-be United States, one that resonated with later depictions of the nation as a melting pot and a land of opportunity. Farmer James, Crèvecoeur’s persona in the Letters, is at his happiest and most hopeful here, and these qualities have sometimes been taken as his creator’s entire understanding of “the American, this new man.” The full text of the Letters tells a dif fer ent story. It includes a shocking depiction of a slave suffer- ing a brutal punishment; and it ends with Farmer James having moved his family to a frontier Indian village out of despair over the fratricidal vio lence unleashed by the Revolution. The complexity of Crèvecoeur’s stance toward Revolutionary- era Ameri- can society is greatly magni"ed by the uncertainties surrounding the author’s ulti- mate commitments. The uncertainties associated with the work itself are ampli"ed by the differences between the En glish and French editions.

Born Michel- Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur in Caen, Normandy, the son of a minor nobleman, he was educated by Jesuits. However, he came to reject Catholi- cism as oppressive, and perhaps for this reason he broke with his father as a teen- ager, sailed to Eng land, and lived there with distant relatives. In 1755 he traveled to French Canada. He enlisted in the Canadian militia, served the government as a surveyor and cartographer, and was wounded in the defense of Quebec during one of the major battles of the French and Indian War (1754–63). After his military career ended in 1759, he traveled to New York, where he was naturalized as a Brit- ish colonial subject in 1765 and changed his name to Hector St. John. Sometimes he went by James Hector St. John, a moniker suggesting that he identi"ed with his persona Farmer James. He later expanded his surname to St. John de Crèvecoeur and added an initial. For the next ten years, Crèvecoeur traveled extensively in the colonies as a surveyor and a trader with American Indians. In 1769, he married a wealthy Protestant woman, Mehetabel Tippet; bought land in Orange County, New

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York; and settled into life on his farm there, Pine Hill. The couple gave their three children names that evoked Crèvecoeur’s French background; a daughter was named América-Francés. In his "rst year at Pine Hill, Crèvecoeur began to write a series of essays about Amer i ca based on his travels and experience as a farmer.

The advent of the American Revolution prompted Crèvecoeur’s wish to reestab- lish owner ship of family lands in France. Although he seems to have held Loyalist sympathies and was suspected of being a British spy, he was arrested and impris- oned as an American spy in 1779, when he tried to sail from the British- held port of New York. (Some have suspected him of being a double agent.) His delayed depar- ture was prob ably related to France’s recognition of the United States and entrance into the war against Britain in 1778. Crèvecoeur reached London in 1780, and the following year he sold his manuscript to a publishing house there, leading to the 1782 edition of Letters. There is evidence to suggest that the British edition was partially rewritten by an unknown editor to draw out its republican themes. In France, Crèvecoeur reconciled with his father, then moved to Paris. There, he was celebrated by the French intellectuals known as the philosophes, who encouraged him to publish a French translation of the Letters. The text that appeared in 1784 was recast more favorably toward France.

In 1783, Crèvecoeur returned to the now victorious United States. He then learned that his farm had been burned in an Indian attack, his wife was dead, and his children were housed with strangers. After regaining custody of his children and moving to New York City, Crèvecoeur was made French consul to New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. A great success as a diplomat, he was named an hon- orary citizen of several American cities; the town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, was named in his honor; and he became an adopted member of the Oneida Nation. He returned to Paris in 1790, at the height of the French Revolution. Three years later, he retired to Normandy. His three- volume sequel to Letters (1801) was not well received. He died at his daughter’s home outside Paris.

In the conceit that structures Crèvecoeur’s work, Farmer James writes his letters in response to queries from an En glish visitor, who wishes to better understand Amer i ca. The personal letter was a central genre in eighteenth- century literary culture, featured in epistolary novels as well as popu lar travelers’ and naturalists’ accounts, both factual and "ctional. Works ranging from the French po liti cal phi- los o pher Baron de Montesquieu’s Persian Letters (1721) to the En glish poet Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters (1763) to the En glish novelist Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768) embody aspects of the form as Crèvecoeur employed it. The American farmer was already a well- established "gure in the po liti cal and social debates of the day, notably employed by the statesman John Dickinson in his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767–68).

Crèvecoeur’s Letters engage the revolutionary- era debates over human nature and po liti cal organ ization vividly but unspeci"cally. He inserted himself into the same transatlantic debates over Americanness and its effects on humankind that Thomas Jefferson pursued in Notes on the State of Virginia (1785; excerpted below); but in contrast to Jefferson, with whom he later corresponded, Crèvecoeur’s philosophical themes are woven through his work rather than presented discur- sively. This allusiveness distinguishes Crèvecoeur’s Letters from the po liti cal writ- ings of the day and lends the collection its lasting fascination.

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From Letters from an American Farmer1

From Letter III. What Is an American?

I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agi- tate the heart and pres ent themselves to the mind of an enlightened En glishman, when he "rst 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 settle- ments which embellishes these extended shores. When he says to himself, this is the work of my countrymen, who, when convulsed by factions,2 afdicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took ref- uge here. They brought along with them their national genius,3 to which they principally owe what liberty they enjoy, and what substance they pos- sess. Here he sees the industry of his native country displayed in a new man- ner, and traces in their works the embryos of all the arts, sciences, and ingenuity which dourish in Eu rope. Here he beholds fair cities, substantial villages, extensive "elds, an im mense country "lled 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 spec- tacle must suggest; it is a prospect which must inspire a good citizen with the most heartfelt plea sure. The dif"culty consists in the manner of view- ing so extensive a scene. He is arrived on a new continent; a modern society offers itself to his contemplation, dif fer ent from what he had hitherto seen. It is not composed, as in Eu rope, of great lords who possess every thing, 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 vis i ble one; no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great re"nements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Eu rope. 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 im mense 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,4 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 fairest5 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 recon- cile himself to our dictionary, which is but short in words of dignity, and

1. The text is from Letters from an American Farmer, edited by Albert Boni and Charles Boni (1925). 2. Disputes.

3. Spirit; distinctive character. 4. Poorness, shabbiness. 5. Most impor tant.

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names of honor. There, on a Sunday, he sees a congregation of respectable farmers and their wives, all clad in neat homespun, well mounted, or riding in their own humble wagons. There is not among them an esquire, saving the unlettered magistrate. There he sees a parson as simple as his dock, a farmer who does not riot6 on the labor of others. We have no princes, for whom we toil, starve, and bleed; we are the most perfect society now exist- ing in the world. Here man is free as he ought to be; nor is this pleasing equality so transitory as many others are. Many ages will not see the shores of our great lakes replenished with inland nations, nor the unknown bounds of North Amer i ca entirely peopled. Who can tell how far it extends? Who can tell the millions of men whom it will feed and contain? for no Eu ro pean foot has as yet traveled half the extent of this mighty continent!

The next wish of this traveler will be to know whence came all these people? They are a mixture of En glish, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans and Swedes. From this promiscuous breed, that race now called Americans have arisen. The eastern provinces7 must indeed be excepted, as being the unmixed descendants of En glishmen. I have heard many wish that they had been more intermixed also: for my part, I am no wisher, and think it much better as it has happened. They exhibit a most con spic u ous "gure in this great and variegated picture; they too enter for a great share in the pleasing perspective displayed in these thirteen provinces. I know it is fash ion able to redect on8 them, but re spect them for what they have done; for the accuracy and wisdom with which they have settled their territory; for the decency of their manners; for their early love of letters; their ancient college,9 the "rst in this hemi sphere; for their industry,1 which to me who am but a farmer is the criterion of every- thing. There never was a people, situated as they are, who with so ungrateful a soil have done more in so short a time. Do you think that the monarchical ingredients which are more prevalent in other governments have purged them from all foul stains? Their histories assert the contrary.

In this great American asylum,2 the poor of Eu rope have by some means met together, and in consequence of vari ous 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 afdiction or pinching penury, can that man call Eng land or any other kingdom his country? A country that had no bread for him, whose "elds procured him no harvest, who met with nothing but the frowns of the rich, the severity of the laws, with jails and punish- ments; 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 Eu rope they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegetative mold and refreshing showers; they withered, and were mowed down by want, hunger, and war; but now by the power of transplan- tation, like all other plants they have taken root and dourished! Formerly they were not numbered in any civil lists3 of their country, except in those

6. I.e., indulge himself. 7. New Eng land. 8. To censure or blame. 9. Harvard College, founded in 1636. 1. Industriousness.

2. Place of refuge (e.g., as from religious perse- cution). 3. Recognized employees of the civil govern- ment: ambassadors, judges, secretaries, etc.

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4. In 1755, as part of the French and Indian War, the French Acadians— settlers who had lived in Nova Scotia for about one hundred and twenty- "ve years— were banished by the British,

who had taken the province in 1710. 5. Where there is bread, there is one’s father- land (Latin). 6. Dear mother (Latin, literal trans.).

of the poor; here they rank as citizens. By what invisible power has this sur- prising metamorphosis been performed? By that of the laws and that of their industry. The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption; they receive ample rewards for their labors; these accumulated rewards procure them lands; those lands confer on them the title of freemen, and to that title every bene"t is af"xed 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 rati"ed and con"rmed by the crown. This is the great chain which links us all, this is the picture which every province exhibits, Nova Scotia excepted. There the crown has done all; either there were no people who had genius, or it was not much attended to: the consequence is that the province is very thinly inhabited indeed; the power of the crown in conjunction with the mosquitoes has prevented men from settling there. Yet some parts of it dourished once, and it contained a mild, harmless set of people. But for the fault of a few leaders, the whole were banished.4 The greatest po liti cal error the crown ever committed in Amer i ca was to cut off men from a country which wanted nothing but men!

What attachment can a poor Eu ro pean 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 patria5 is the motto of all emigrants. What then is the American, this new man? He is either a Eu ro pean, or the descendant of a Eu ro pean, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will "nd in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grand father was an En glishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose pres ent four sons have now four wives of dif fer ent 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.6 Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carry ing along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor, and industry which began long since in the east; they will "nish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Eu rope; here they are incorpo- rated into one of the "nest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the dif fer ent cli- mates 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 pro gress 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 mor- sel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those

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7. I.e., they deal with rougher people. 8. Social experience.

9. Trade. 1. Nonaristocratic landowners.

"elds 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. Here religion demands but little of him; a small voluntary sal- ary to the minister, and gratitude to God; can he refuse these? The Ameri- can is a new man, who acts upon new princi ples; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile depen- dence, penury, and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very dif fer ent nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.— This is an American.

British Amer i ca is divided into many provinces, forming a large associa- tion, scattered along a coast 1,500 miles extent and about 200 wide. This society I would fain examine, at least such as it appears in the middle prov- inces; if it does not afford that variety of tinges and gradations which may be observed in Eu rope, we have colors peculiar to ourselves. For instance, it is natu ral to conceive that those who live near the sea must be very dif fer- ent from those who live in the woods; the intermediate space will afford a separate and distinct class.

Men are like plants; the goodness and davor 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 employ- ment. Here you will "nd but few crimes; these have acquired as yet no root among us. I wish I was 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 "sh than on desh, and often encounter that boisterous ele ment.7 This renders them more bold and enter- prising; this leads them to neglect the con"ned occupations of the land. They see and converse with a variety of people, their intercourse8 with man- kind becomes extensive. The sea inspires them with a love of traf"c,9 a desire of transporting produce from one place to another; and leads them to a variety of resources which supply the place of labor. Those who inhabit the middle settlements, by far the most numerous, must be very dif fer ent; the simple cultivation of the earth puri"es them, but the indulgences of the government, the soft remonstrances of religion, the rank of in de pen dent freeholders,1 must necessarily inspire them with sentiments, very little known in Eu rope among people of the same class. What do I say? Eu rope has no such class of men; the early knowledge they acquire, the early bar- gains they make, give them a great degree of sagacity. As freemen they will be litigious; pride and obstinancy are often the cause of lawsuits; the nature of our laws and governments may be another. As citizens it is easy to imag- ine that they will carefully read the newspapers, enter into every po liti cal 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 cheerful cup. As Chris- tians, 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, sel"shness,

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2. I.e., the frontier; the land west of the original colonies and east of the Mississippi. 3. I.e., they were improvident and spent beyond

their means. “Want”: lack. 4. Crèvecoeur’s father, unlike Farmer John’s, never went to Amer i ca.

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 induence, and their manners are less improved.

Now we arrive near the great woods, near the last inhabited districts;2 there men seem to be placed still farther beyond the reach of government, which in some mea sure leaves them to themselves. How can it pervade every corner; as they were driven there by misfortunes, necessity of beginnings, desire of acquiring large tracts of land, idleness, frequent want of economy,3 ancient debts; the reunion of such people does not afford a very pleasing spectacle. When discord, want of unity and friendship; when either drunk- enness 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 deci ded 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 desh of wild animals when they can catch them, and when they are not able, they subsist on grain. He who would wish to see Amer i ca in its proper light, and have a true idea of its feeble beginnings and barbarous rudiments, must visit our extended line of frontiers where the last settlers dwell, and where he may see the "rst labors of settlement, the mode of clearing the earth, in all their dif fer ent appearances; where men are wholly left dependent on their native tempers and on the spur of uncertain industry, which often fails when not sancti"ed by the ef"cacy of a few moral rules. There, remote from the power of example and check of shame, many families exhibit the most hid- eous 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 "nish their improve- ments, convert the log house into a con ve nient habitation, and rejoicing that the "rst heavy labors are "nished, will change in a few years that hitherto barbarous country into a "ne fertile, well- regulated district. Such is our pro- gress, such is the march of the Eu ro pe ans toward the interior parts of this continent. In all socie ties these are offcasts; this impure part serves as our precursors or pioneers; my father himself was one of that class,4 but he came upon honest princi ples, 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 his 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.

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5. Believers. 6. The Roman Catholic doctrine that the sub- stance of the bread and wine used in the sacra- ment of communion is changed at the consecration to the substance of the body and blood of Christ. 7. As distinguished from transubstantiation; the

doctrine that Christ’s body is not pres ent in or under the ele ments of bread and wine, but the bread and wine are signs of Christ’s presence through faith. 8. One who dissents or withdraws from an established church.

Exclusive of those general characteristics, each province has its own, founded on the government, climate, mode of husbandry, customs, and peculiarity of circumstances. Eu ro pe ans 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, Mas sa chu setts, the middle provinces, the southern ones will be as dif fer ent as their climates; their only points of unity will be those of reli- gion and language.

As I have endeavored to show you how Eu ro pe ans become Americans, it may not be disagreeable to show you likewise how the vari ous Christian sects introduced wear out, and how religious indifference becomes prevalent. When any considerable number of a par tic u lar sect happen to dwell con- tiguous to each other, they immediately erect a temple, and there worship the Divinity agreeably to their own peculiar ideas. Nobody disturbs them. If any new sect springs up in Eu rope it may happen that many of its profes- sors5 will come and settle in Amer i ca. As they bring their zeal with 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 indus- trious, what is it to their neighbors how and in what manner they think "t 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 En glishman, Frenchman, and Eu ro pean is lost, and in like manner, the strict modes of Chris tian ity as practiced in Eu rope 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. I shall be able per- haps hereafter to explain myself better; in the meanwhile, let the following example serve as my "rst justi"cation.

Let us suppose you and I to be traveling; we observe that in this house, to the right, lives a Catholic, who prays to God as he has been taught, and believes in transubstantiation;6 he works and raises wheat, he has a large family of children, all hale and robust; his belief, his prayers offend nobody. About one mile farther on the same road, his next neighbor may be a good honest plodding German Lutheran, who addresses himself to the same God, the God of all, agreeably to the modes he has been educated in, and believes in consubstantiation;7 by so doing he scandalizes nobody; he also works in his "elds, embellishes the earth, clears swamps, etc. What has the world to do with his Lutheran princi ples? He persecutes nobody, and nobody persecutes him, he visits his neighbors, and his neighbors visit him. Next to him lives a seceder,8 the most enthusiastic of all sectaries; his zeal is hot and "ery, but separated as he is from others of the same complexion, he has no congregation

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9. En glish Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania (1644–1718). 1. An ecclesiastical assembly held in Dordrecht, or Dordt, Holland, in 1618 to settle disputes

between Protestant Reformed churches. “Low Dutchman”: someone from Holland, not Bel- gium.

of his own to resort to, where he might cabal and mingle religious pride with worldly obstinacy. He likewise raises good crops, his house is handsomely painted, his orchard is one of the fairest in the neighborhood. How does it concern the welfare of the country, or of the province at large, what this man’s religious sentiments are, or really whether he has any at all? He is a good farmer, he is a sober, peaceable, good citizen: William Penn9 himself would not wish for more. This is the vis i ble character, the invisible one is only guessed at, and is nobody’s business. Next again lives a Low Dutchman, who implicitly believes the rules laid down by the synod of Dort.1 He conceives no other idea of a clergyman than that of a hired man; if he does his work well he will pay him the stipulated sum; if not he will dismiss him, and do without his sermons, and let his church be shut up for years. But notwithstanding this coarse idea, you will "nd his house and farm to be the neatest in all the coun- try; and you will judge by his wagon and fat horses that he thinks more of the affairs of this world than of those of the next. He is sober and laborious, there- fore he is all he ought to be as to the affairs of this life; as for those of the next, he must trust to the great Creator. Each of these people instruct their children as well as they can, but these instructions are feeble compared to those which are given to the youth of the poorest class in Eu rope. Their children will therefore grow up less zealous and more indifferent in matters of religion than their parents. The foolish vanity, or rather the fury of making proselytes, is unknown here; they have no time, the seasons call for all their attention, and thus in a few years, this mixed neighborhood will exhibit a strange religious medley, that will be neither pure Catholicism nor pure Calvinism. A very per- ceptible indifference, even in the "rst generation, will become apparent; and it may happen that the daughter of the Catholic will marry the son of the seceder, and settle by themselves at a distance from their parents. What reli- gious education will they give their children? A very imperfect one. If there happens to be in the neighborhood any place of worship, we will suppose a Quaker’s meeting; rather than not show their "ne clothes, they will go to it, and some of them may perhaps attach themselves to that society. Others will remain in a perfect state of indifference; the children of these zealous parents will not be able to tell what their religious princi ples are, and their grandchil- dren still less. The neighborhood of a place of worship generally leads them to it, and the action of going thither is the strongest evidence they can give of their attachment to any sect. The Quakers are the only people who retain a fondness for their own mode of worship; for be they ever so far separated from each other, they hold a sort of communion with the society, and seldom depart from its rules, at least in this country. 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 pres ent one of the strongest characteristics of the Americans. Where this will reach no one can tell, per- haps it may leave a vacuum "t to receive other systems. Persecution, religious pride, the love of contradiction are the food of what the world commonly calls religion. These motives have ceased here; zeal in Eu rope is con"ned; here it

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2. I.e., like gunpowder in a gun. 3. Parcels of land held outright for speci"ed periods of time. 4. The Moravian Church, or Unity of Brethren,

originated in Bohemia and Moravia in the "f- teenth century. In the following two centuries, persecution forced groups of Moravians to emi- grate to other lands.

evaporates in the great distance it has to travel; there it is a grain of powder inclosed,2 here it burns away in the open air, and consumes without effect.

But to return to our back settlers. I must tell you that there is something in the proximity of the woods which is very singular. It is with men as it is with the plants and animals that grow and live in the forests; they are entirely dif fer ent from those that live in the plains. I will candidly tell you all my thoughts but you are not to expect that I shall advance any reasons. By liv- ing in or near the woods, their actions are regulated by the wildness of the neighborhood. The deer often come to eat their grain, the wolves to destroy their sheep, the bears to kill their hogs, the foxes to catch their poultry. This surrounding hostility immediately puts the gun into their hands; they watch these animals, they kill some; and thus by defending their property, they soon become professed hunters; this is the pro gress; once hunters, farewell to the plow. The chase renders them ferocious, gloomy, and unsociable; a hunter wants no neighbor, he rather hates them, because he dreads the competi- tion. In a little time their success in the woods makes them neglect their tillage. They trust to the natu ral fecundity of the earth, and therefore do little; carelessness in fencing often exposes what little they sow to destruc- tion; they are not at home to watch; in order therefore to make up the de"- ciency, they go oftener to the woods. That new mode of life brings along with it a new set of manners, which I cannot easily describe. These new man- ners, being grafted on the old stock, produce a strange sort of lawless prof- ligacy, the impressions of which are indelible. The manners of the Indian natives are respectable, compared with this Eu ro pean medley. Their wives and children live in sloth and inactivity; and having no proper pursuits, you may judge what education the latter receive. Their tender minds have noth- ing else to contemplate but the example of their parents; like them they grow up a mongrel breed, half civilized, half savage, except nature stamps on them some constitutional propensities. That rich, that voluptuous sentiment is gone that struck them so forcibly; the possession of their freeholds3 no lon- ger conveys to their minds the same plea sure and pride. To all these reasons you must add their lonely situation, and you cannot imagine what an effect on manners the great distances they live from each other has! Consider one of the last settlements in its "rst view: of what is it composed? Eu ro pe ans who have not that suf"cient share of knowledge they ought to have, in order to prosper; people who have suddenly passed from oppression, dread of gov- ernment, and fear of laws into the unlimited freedom of the woods. This sudden change must have a very great effect on most men, and on that class particularly. Eating of wild meat, what ever you may think, tends to alter their temper: though all the proof I can adduce is that I have seen it: and having no place of worship to resort to, what little society this might afford is denied them. The Sunday meetings, exclusive of religious bene"ts, were the only social bonds that might have inspired them with some degree of emulation in neatness. Is it then surprising to see men thus situated, immersed in great and heavy labors, degenerate a little? It is rather a won der the effect is not more diffusive. The Moravians4 and the Quakers are the only instances in

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5. The Moravians were family communities who gave up private property and were noted for their industry and thrift. 6. I.e., Quaker settlers had more money than

the Moravians. 7. Needs. 8. Neediness, poverty. 9. Lack.

exception to what I have advanced. The "rst never settle singly, it is a col- ony of the society which emigrates; they carry with them their forms, wor- ship, rules, and decency:5 the others never begin so hard, they are always able to buy improvements,6 in which there is a great advantage, for by that time the country is recovered from its "rst barbarity. Thus our bad people are those who are half cultivators and half hunters; and the worst of them are those who have degenerated altogether into the hunting state. As old plowmen and new men of the woods, as Eu ro pe ans and new- made Indians, they contract the vices of both; they adopt the moroseness and ferocity of a native, without his mildness, or even his industry at home. If manners are not re"ned, at least they are rendered simple and inoffensive by tilling the earth; all our wants7 are supplied by it, our time is divided between labor and rest, and leaves none of the commission of great misdeeds. As hunters it is divided between the toil of the chase, the idleness of repose, or the indul- gence of inebriation. Hunting is but a licentious idle life, and if it does not always pervert good dispositions; yet, when it is united with bad luck, it leads to want:8 want stimulates that propensity to rapacity and injustice, too natu- ral to needy men, which is the fatal gradation. After this explanation of the effects which follow by living in the woods, shall we yet vainly datter our- selves with the hope of converting the Indians? We should rather begin with converting our back- settlers; and now if I dare mention the name of religion, its sweet accents would be lost in the immensity of these woods. Men thus placed are not "t either to receive or remember its mild instructions; they want9 temples and ministers, but as soon as men cease to remain at home, and begin to lead an erratic life, let them be either tawny or white, they cease to be its disciples.

* * * Eu rope contains hardly any other distinctions but lords and tenants; this fair country alone is settled by freeholders, the possessors of the soil they culti- vate, members of the government they obey, and the framers of their own laws, by means of their representatives. This is a thought which you have taught me to cherish; our difference from Eu rope, far from diminishing, rather adds to our usefulness and consequence as men and subjects. Had our forefathers remained there, they would only have crowded it, and per- haps prolonged those convulsions which had shook it so long. Every indus- trious Eu ro pean who transports himself here may be compared to a sprout growing at the foot of a great tree; it enjoys and draws but a little portion of sap; wrench it from the parent roots, transplant it, and it will become a tree bearing fruit also. Colonists are therefore entitled to the consideration due to the most useful subjects; a hundred families barely existing in some parts of Scotland will here in six years cause an annual exportation of 10,000 bushels of wheat; 100 bushels being but a common quantity for an industri- ous family to sell, if they cultivated good land. It is here then that the idle may be employed, the useless become useful, and the poor become rich; but by riches I do not mean gold and silver, we have but little of those metals; I

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1. Charles- Town (now Charleston), South Carolia; Lima, Peru.

mean a better sort of wealth, cleared lands, cattle, good houses, good clothes, and an increase of people to enjoy them.

There is no won der that this country has so many charms, and pres ents to Eu ro pe ans so many temptations to remain in it. A traveler in Eu rope becomes a stranger as soon as he quits his own kingdom; but it is other wise here. We know, properly speaking, no strangers; this is every person’s coun- try; the variety of our soils, situations, climates, governments, and produce hath something which must please every body. No sooner does a Eu ro pean arrive, no matter of what condition, than his eyes are opened upon the fair prospect; he hears his language spoken, he retraces many of his own coun- try manners, he perpetually hears the names of families and towns with which he is acquainted; he sees happiness and prosperity in all places dis- seminated; he meets with hospitality, kindness, and plenty everywhere; he beholds hardly any poor; he seldom hears of punishments and executions; and he won ders at the elegance of our towns, those miracles of industry and freedom. He cannot admire enough our rural districts, our con ve nient roads, good taverns, and our many accommodations; he involuntarily loves a coun- try where every thing is so lovely.

* * * After a foreigner from any part of Eu rope is arrived, and become a citizen, let him devoutly listen to the voice of our great parent, which says to him, “Welcome to my shores, distressed Eu ro pe an; bless the hour in which thou didst see my verdant "elds, my fair navigable rivers, and my green mountains!— If thou wilt work, I have bread for thee; if thou wilt be honest, sober, and industrious, I have greater rewards to confer on thee— ease and in de pen dence. I will give thee "elds to feed and clothe thee; a comfortable "reside to sit by, and tell thy children by what means thou hast prospered; and a decent bed to repose on. I shall endow thee beside with the immuni- ties of a freeman. If thou wilt carefully educate thy children, teach them gratitude to God, and reverence to that government, the philanthropic gov- ernment, which has collected here so many men and made them happy. I will also provide for thy progeny; and to every good man this ought to be the most holy, the most power ful, the most earnest wish he can possibly form, as well as the most consolatory prospect when he dies. Go thou and work and till; thou shalt prosper, provided thou be just, grateful, and industrious.”

From Letter IX. Description of Charles- Town; Thoughts on Slavery; on Physical Evil; A Melancholy Scene

Charles- Town is, in the north, what Lima is in the south;1 both are capitals of the richest provinces of their respective hemi spheres: you may therefore conjecture, that both cities must exhibit the appearances necessarily result- ing from riches. Peru abounding in gold, Lima is "lled with inhabitants who enjoy all those gradations of plea sure, re"nement, and luxury, which pro- ceed from wealth. Carolina produces commodities, more valuable perhaps than gold, because they are gained by greater industry; it exhibits also on our northern stage, a display of riches and luxury, inferior indeed to the

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2. Ware houses. 3. Liveliest, most vibrant. 4. I.e., of the land, extending into the harbor. 5. Expensive. 6. The practice of tithing (offering a tenth of

one’s worldly goods to God) was begun by the biblical patriarch Abraham (Genesis 14.20). It is “Mosaical” because the "rst "ve Books of the Old Testament (starting with Genesis) are tradi- tionally ascribed to Moses.

former, but far superior to what are to be seen in our northern towns. Its situation is admirable, being built at the conduence of two large rivers, which receive in their course a great number of inferior streams; all navi- gable in the spring, for dat- boats. Here the produce of this extensive terri- tory concenters; here therefore is the seat of the most valuable exportation; their wharfs, their docks, their magazines,2 are extremely con ve nient to facilitate this great commercial business. The inhabitants are the gayest3 in Amer i ca; it is called the center of our beau monde, and it [is] always "lled with the richest planters of the province, who resort hither in a quest of health and plea sure. Here are always to be seen a great number of valetudi- narians from the West Indies, seeking for the renovation of health, exhausted by the debilitating nature of their sun, air, and modes of living. Many of these West Indians have I seen, at thirty, loaded with the in"rmities of old age; for nothing is more common in those countries of wealth, than for per- sons to lose the abilities of enjoying the comforts of life, at a time when we northern men just begin to taste the fruits of our labor and prudence. The round of plea sure, and the expenses of those citizens’ tables, are much superior to what you would imagine: indeed the growth of this town and province has been astonishingly rapid. It is [a] pity that the narrowness of the neck4 on which it stands prevents it from increasing; and which is the reason why houses are so dear.5 The heat of the climate, which is some- times 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 power ful. 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 irresistably to dissipation and plea sure: on the contrary, the women, from being abstemious, reach to a longer period of life, and seldom die without having had several husbands. An Eu ro pean at his "rst arrival must be greatly surprised when he sees the elegance of their houses, their sump- tuous furniture, as well as the magni"cence of their tables. Can he imagine himself in a country, the establishment of which is so recent?

The three principal classes of inhabitants are, lawyers, planters, and mer- chants; this is the province which has afforded to the "rst the richest spoils, for nothing can exceed their wealth, their power, and their induence. They have reached the ne plus ultra of worldly felicity; no plantation is secured, no title is good, no will is valid, but what they dictate, regulate, and approve. The whole mass of provincial property is become tributary to this society; which, far above priests and bishops, disdain to be satis"ed with the poor Mosaical portion of the tenth.6 I appeal to the many inhabitants, who, while contending perhaps for their right to a few hundred acres, have lost by the mazes of the law their whole patrimony. These men are more properly law givers than interpreters of the law; and have united here, as well as in most other provinces, the skill and dexterity of the scribe with the power and ambi- tion of the prince: who can tell where this may lead in a future day? The

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7. Then a colony in South Carolina.

nature of our laws, and the spirit of freedom, which often tends to make us litigious, must necessarily throw the greatest part of the property of the colo- nies into the hands of these gentlemen. In another century, the law will possess in the north, what now the church possesses in Peru and Mexico.

While all is joy, festivity, and happiness in Charles- Town, would you imag- ine 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 labors 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 labor, are far too distant from the gay capital to be heard. The cho- sen 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 cheering liquor. This great contrast has often afforded me subjects of the most afdicting meditation. On the one side, behold a people enjoying all that life affords most bewitching and pleas ur able, without labor, without fatigue, hardly subjected to the trou ble of wishing. With gold, dug from Peru- vian 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 neighborhood, 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 hus- band; whose 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 dif fer ent 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 vio lence; no other right than what this accursed metal has given them! Strange order of things! Oh, Nature, where are thou?— Are not these blacks thy children as well as we? On the other side, nothing is to be seen but the most diffusive misery and wretchedness, unrelieved even in thought or wish! Day after day they drudge on without any prospect of ever reaping for them- selves; 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. Kindness and affection are not the portion of those who till the earth, who carry the burdens, who convert the logs into useful boards. This reward, simple and natu ral as one would conceive it, would border on humanity; and planters must have none of it!

* * * A clergyman settled a few years ago at George- Town,7 and feeling as I do now, warmly recommended to the planters, from the pulpit, a relaxation of severity; he introduced the benignity of Chris tian ity, and pathetically made use of the admirable precepts of that system to melt the hearts of his

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8. Lacedemonia was a country in the Peloponnese region of the ancient world. The inhabitants of its capital, Sparta— who were known as Spartans or Lacedemonians— enslaved the inhabitants of the

town of Helos, who were known as Helotes. In the ancient world, the Peloponnese region of Laco- nia, or Lacedemonia, was a country.

congregation into a greater degree of compassion toward their slaves than had been hitherto customary; “Sir (said one of his hearers) we pay you a genteel salary to read to us the prayers of the liturgy, and to explain to us such parts of the Gospel as the rule of the church directs; but we do not want you to teach us what we are to do with our blacks.” The clergyman found it prudent to withhold any farther admonition. Whence this aston- ishing right, or rather this barbarous custom, for most certainly we have no kind of right beyond that of force? We are told, it is true, that slavery can- not be so repugnant to human nature as we at "rst imagine, because it has been practiced in all ages, and in all nations: the Lacedemonians8 them- selves, 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. What a hideous aspect the face of the earth must then have exhibited! Provinces, towns, districts, often depopulated; their inhabitants driven to Rome, the greatest market in the world, and there sold by thousands! The Roman dominions were tilled by the hands of unfortunate people, who had once been, like their victors free, rich, and possessed of every bene"t society can confer; until they became subject to the cruel right of war, and to lawless force. 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?

* * * Everywhere one part of the human species are taught the art of shedding the blood of the other; of setting "re to their dwellings; of leveling the works of their industry: half of the existence of nations regularly employed in destroying other nations. What little po liti cal felicity is to be met with here and there, has cost oceans of blood to purchase; as if good was never to be the portion of unhappy man. Republics, kingdoms, monarchies, founded either on fraud or successful vio lence, increase by pursuing the steps of the same policy, until they are destroyed in their turn, either by the induence of their own crimes, or by more successful but equally criminal enemies.

If from this general review of human nature, we descend to the examina- tion of what is called civilized society; there the combination of every natu- ral and arti"cial want, makes us pay very dear for what little share of po liti cal felicity we enjoy. It is a strange heterogeneous assemblage of vices and vir- tues, and of a variety of other princi ples, forever at war, forever jarring, for- ever producing some dangerous, some distressing extreme. Where do you conceive then that nature intended we should be happy? Would you prefer

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the state of men in the woods, to that of men in a more improved situation? Evil preponderates in both; in the "rst they often eat each other for want of food, and in the other they often starve each other for want of room. For my part, I think the vices and miseries to be found in the latter, exceed those of the former; in which real evil is more scarce, more supportable, and less enormous. Yet we wish to see the earth peopled; to accomplish the happi- ness of kingdoms, which is said to consist in numbers. Gracious God! to what end is the introduction of so many beings into a mode of existence in which they must grope amidst as many errors, commit as many crimes, and meet with as many diseases, wants, and sufferings!

The following scene will I hope account for these melancholy redections, and apologize for the gloomy thoughts with which I have "lled 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 traveling 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 inar- ticulate monosyllables. Alarmed and surprised, 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, duttering about, and anxiously endeavor- ing to perch on the cage. Actuated by an involuntary motion of my hands, more than by any design of my mind, I "red at them; they all dew 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 dis"gured, the blood slowly dropped, and tinged the ground beneath. No sooner were the birds down, than swarms of insects covered the whole body of this unfor- tunate wretch, eager to feed on his mangled desh 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 specter, 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 reliedess 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 dispatched him; but "nding myself unable to perform so kind an of"ce, I sought, though trembling, to relieve him as well as I could. A shell ready "xed to a pole, which had been used by some Negroes, presented itself to me; "lled it with water, and with trembling hands I guided it to the quiver- ing lips of the wretched sufferer. Urged by the irresistible power of thirst,

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he endeavored to meet it, as he instinctively guessed its approach by the noise it made in passing through the bars of the cage. “Tankè, you whitè man, tankè you, putè somè poison and givè me.” “How long have you been hang- ing there?” I asked him. “Two days, and me no die; the birds, the birds; aaah me!” Oppressed with the redections 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 plan- tation. They told me that the laws of self- preservation rendered such execu- tions 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 trou ble you at pres ent.

Adieu.

From Letter X. On Snakes; and on the Humming Bird

* * * As I was one day sitting solitary and pensive in my primitive arbor, my atten- tion was engaged by a strange sort of rustling noise at some paces distant. I looked all around without distinguishing anything, until I climbed one of my great hemp stalks; when to my astonishment, I beheld two snakes of con- siderable length, the one pursuing the other with great celerity through a hemp stubble "eld. The aggressor was of the black kind, six feet long; the fugitive was a water snake, nearly of equal dimensions. They soon met, and in the fury of their "rst encounter, they appeared in an instant "rmly twisted together; and whilst their united tails beat the ground, they mutu- ally tried with open jaws to lacerate each other. What a fell9 aspect did they pres ent! their heads were compressed to a very small size, their eyes dashed "re; and after this condict had lasted about "ve minutes, the second found means to disengage itself from the "rst, and hurried toward the ditch. Its antagonist instantly assumed a new posture, and half creeping and half erect, with a majestic mien, overtook and attacked the other again, which placed itself in the same attitude, and prepared to resist. The scene was uncommon and beautiful; for thus opposed they fought with their jaws, biting each other with the utmost rage; but notwithstanding this appearance of mutual courage and fury, the water snake still seemed desirous of retreating toward the ditch, its natu ral ele ment. This was no sooner perceived by the keen- eyed black one, than twisting its tail twice round a stalk of hemp, and seiz- ing its adversary by the throat, not by means of its jaws, but by twisting its own neck twice round that of the water snake, pulled it back from the ditch. To prevent a defeat the latter took hold likewise of a stalk on the bank, and by the acquisition of that point of re sis tance became a match for its "erce antagonist. Strange was this to behold; two great snakes strongly adhering to the ground mutually fastened together by means of the writhings which lashed them to each other, and stretched at their full length, they pulled but pulled in vain, and in the moments of greatest exertions that part of their bodies which was entwined, seemed extremely small, while the rest

9. Evil.