Blog Work 3

I found Crevocoeur’s opening line to Letters From an American Farmer very interesting. He starts off saying, “I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent” which made me at first unsure about his feelings about America (pg 58). When first looking at it, I thought he was not satisfied with his life in America given that in his biography it said he returned to France where he stayed for the rest of his life. But, has I continued reading, Crevocoeur seems to be praising the new land for have creating their own identities as Americans and that the rich live not too far from the poor. Life in the American colonies was then said to be a modern society due to the coming together of people from different countries and different social status and also the lack of aristocracy.

Another point I would like to mention is that on page 61, to me it felt as if there was a change in subject. Recently he mentioned how he has great respect “for the accuracy and wisdom with which they have settled their territory…” (pg 60). But on the next page, Crevocoeur in a way bashes Britain that it does not take care of their citizens. There are citizens that are left starving, whose farms become unsuccessful to harvest, jailed and punished, frowned upon by the rich. I understand that these citizens who were poorly treated in Britain may have gotten motivation to sail to The Colonies because of it, but I just do not understand how this idea flows with the previous statement.

Crevocoeur also mentions the Latin phrase Ubi panis ibi patria which is what emigrants would say. I could not understand what this phrase means. I wish it were explained by either Crevocoeur himself or maybe even Diane Ravitch could have explained this phrase in the introductory paragraph before the Letter. After looking it up on Google, I was able to learn that it means “Where there is bread, there is my country” which now makes sense.