Writing as a farmer named James, Crèvecoeur describes the pleasures of his fields, the whalers and Quakers of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, snakes and hummingbirds, and the slave society of Charleston. His third letter, What Is an American, offers the famous picture of Europeans of many nations remade into a new people.
A founding text of American identity, first published in London in 1782, here with Warren Barton Blake’s introduction. Download the free EPUB.