Letters from an American Farmer |
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acquainted acres afford Ameri American Farmer ancient Andrew appear become Caen called Cape Fear chearful citizens climate continent Crèvecoeur cultivate dear doctor dreadful earth emigrants enjoy Europe European farm father fee simple feel fields fish friends happy hath Hebridean honest Houdetot ideas imagine Indians industry inhabitants island John de Crèvecoeur kind labour land laws letter live manners Martha's Vineyard Massachusets means ment miles mind mode Nantucket native nature neighbours never observe peace peculiar perhaps pleasing pleasure plough Plymouth Company poor possessed procure prosperity province Quakers reason receive religious respect rest rich river Samoyede scenes Scotch sea fowls settled settlement shew shores simple situation slavery society soil soon strong tell temper thee thing thou thought tion toil town trees useless whale wife William Penn wish woods wour Yadkin River
Popular passages
Page 181 - Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through nature up to nature's God...
Page 51 - The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit.
Page 48 - 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, smoke, and indigence.
Page 47 - Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one, no great manufactures employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury.
Page 51 - 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.
Page 49 - The next wish of this traveller will be to know whence came all these people? they are a mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes. From this promiscuous breed, that race now called Americans have arisen.
Page 47 - We are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense 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.
Page 51 - Europe they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegetative mould, and refreshing showers; they withered, and were mowed down by want, hunger, and war: but now, by the power of transplantation, like all other plants, they have taken root and flourished!
Page 51 - There men appear to be no better than carnivorous animals of a superior rank, living on the flesh of wild animals when they can catch them, and when they are not able, they subsist on grain.
Page 51 - The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. — This is an American.