October 12, 2016
Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur’s epistle called Letters from an American Farmer represents the principles of the American dream. When written, the letters reached out to Europeans looking to take control of their lives and make it better for themselves and their families. The three main tenets of the American dream that de Crevecoeur references are possibilities of self-reliance, the opportunity of the ‘promised land,’ and the American birthright to make one’s life better and better.
At this point in time, most Europeans were working on land that they didn’t own and paying rent with money, labor, and a percent of their harvest. This is why the promise of self-reliance and success in America was so attractive to potential immigrants. Even if these people would be required to leave behind family and work hard to maintain their land, it would mean greater success and freedom than they had ever experienced before. When they brought in the rewards from their hard work, they could keep it for themselves and build a comfortable life instead of paying a landowner. De Crevecoeur believed that in America, “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.” This portrayed to his audience that as long as American immigrants were diligent and hard-working, personal success would follow. He also describes an American as a man who “has passed the toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence- This is an American.” De Crevecoeur knows that to attract immigrants he must let everyone know that in America, their hard work can be rewarded.
The picture of America as a ‘promised land’ was also appealing to many people. Most of the Europeans working under a landowner had probably never left their country or even town before, so it would have been a scary notion to pick up and leave it all behind. However, de Crevecoeur questions whether these places can truly be called home when he writes “Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves… Can that man call England or any other kingdom his country? A country that has no bread for him, whose fields procured him no harvest, who met with nothing but the but the frowns of the rich, the severity of the laws, with jails and punishments…” De Crevecoeur goes on to explain that America will provide for people like no other country can, and that America is a place that can truly be called home.
Another tenant of the American dream that de Crevecoeur emphasized was optimism and the potential for life to continuously improve. He believed that every American had a birthright to progress, and he writes that Americans “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 benefit is affixed which men can possibly acquire.” Unlike the countries that immigrants leave behind, America provides its citizens with the privilege to be optimistic, safe, and successful. In America, emigrants could become citizens with a country to call their own. According to de Crevecoeur, “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 could not only be optimistic about personal growth but the success of their new home.
De Crevecoeur knew that emigrants needed to see America as a ray of hope. In his epistle, he addressed the topics we now know as the American Dream. Optimism, self-reliance, and living in a “promised land” were all tenants of de Crevecoeur’s reality rather than his dream. It is not surprising that he wanted to share the American life with anyone else who needed a new start.