What then is the American, this new man? He is either a European or a descendant of a European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. 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 has embraced, the new government he obeys, the new rank he holds.
From the beginning of America, it was an accepted fact that immigration was as integral to the very idea of America as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution or any battle of the Revolution War. de Crèvecœur is not asserting some radical liberal ideology with these lines; he is asserting a fundamental and incontrovertible fact. So it is rather ironic that for so much of American history, so many people have battled so vigorously against this premise. While the author is manifesting an Eurocentric interpretation of immigration with this assertion, that is merely a symptom of the times and his own personal ignorance of the breadth of international immigration figures already at play.
Europe has no such class of men; the early knowledge they acquire, the early bargains they make, give them a great degree of sagacity. As freemen they will be litigious; pride and obstinacy are often the cause of law suits; the nature of our laws and governments may be another. As citizens it is easy to imagine, that they will carefully read the newspapers, enter into every political 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.
Continuing with the theme of what is American, at a later point the definition is drawn through comparative distinction. What a European isn’t has much as to do with answering the question as what American actually is. In fact, one might argue that his view of what makes an American is fairly guided by how they differ from what he knows.
Idleness is the most heinous sin that can be committed in Nantucket: an idle man would soon be pointed out as an object of compassion: for idleness is considered as another word for want and hunger.
For the author, Nantucket represents a kind of ideal for what American can be. Although far from perfect, the work ethic and commitment to democracy combined with hardy, but not overly obtrusive religious instruction. The predominant religious sect is the Quaker and it is their particular religious guidelines which informs the work ethic described here.
You have, no doubt, read several histories of this continent, yet there are a thousand facts, a thousand explanations overlooked. Authors will certainly convey to you a geographical knowledge of this country; they will acquaint you with the eras of the several settlements, the foundations of our towns, the spirit of our different charters, etc., yet they do not sufficiently disclose the genius of the people, their various customs, their modes of agriculture, the innumerable resources which the industrious have of raising themselves to a comfortable and easy situation.
At the time, this was most assuredly a minority opinion. Then and for at least the next century—some would argue even today—Europeans more the part regarded American for the most part as being as far from genius as it was possible to get and still be self-reliant. American customs were considered vulgar and even the largest towns were thought to be backwater havens for ignorant farmers.
The only possible chance of any alleviation depends on the humour of the planters, who, bred in the midst of slaves, learn from the example of their parents to despise them; and seldom conceive either from religion or philosophy, any ideas that tend to make their fate less calamitous; except some strong native tenderness of heart, some rays of philanthropy, overcome the obduracy contracted by habit.
On one particular point, the author does not diverge from the standard European view of America: that the retention of the institution of slavery is an abomination in the eyes of God. Crèvecœur does not shy away from criticism of this element of American life. His account is, in fact, one of the most incisive critiques of the fundamental lack of humanity that not only allows for the active ownership of human beings as property, but the surrounding culture that accepts it without any individual benefit.
