ENL 142: Short Essay Submission 3

Hunting in Letters from an American Farmer

Letter 3 from Letters from an American Farmer by Crevecoeur discusses the lives of the people who live in various types of climates across the Americas, from the sea to the more inland parts, and he discusses the customs of these people based on their surroundings. Farming is what the narrator, James, considers the most virtuous employment, and in contrast, hunting is what turns a farmer “bad.”  For example, on page 78 James says “our bad people are those who are half cultivators and half hunters; and the worst of them are those who have degenerated altogether into the hunting state.” In opposition to the bad and worse people are the farmers and cultivators of the land. He asserts the claim that plants, like man, grow abundantly and can provide ample subsistence with little to no use of hunting, so hunting is not only a wasteful use of time that could be used for agriculture, but also a needless waste of animal life.

At one point he directly compares men to the plants they cultivate, and the land that grows the plants:

Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment (71).

By drawing this comparison the narrator not only puts man and plants on a closer plane of existence, but also implies that man, like plants, are only products of the environment that cultivate them. If a man grows up in an environment that relies on hunting, and hunting is inferior to agriculture, that man will grow somehow inferior in virtue to the man raised as a farmer. He goes on to say that:

By living near the woods, their actions are regulated by the wildness of the neighbourhood…this surrounding hostility immediately puts the gun into their hands; they watch these animals, they kill some; and thus by defending their property, they soon become professed hunters; this is the progress; once hunters, farewell to the plough (76).

Not only do they lose their virtue in becoming hunters, but, as implied by the last passage, once they begin hunting there is no going back.

There are also portions of the work that, one could argue, point to James’ objection to hunting because of the civility he sees in the animals around him, especially when compared to the uncivilized men who hunt them. For example, his description of birds gives them much credibility to the civility of their homes.

The astonishing art which all birds display in the construction of their nests…always make me ashamed of the slovenliness of our houses; their love to their dame, their incessant careful attention, and the peculiar songs they address to her while she tediously incubates their eggs, remind me of my duty could I ever forget it…in short, the whole economy of what we proudly call the brute creation is admirable in every circumstance (61-62).

In contrast, the civility of the people who live in the wildernesses is lacking in what James calls a “new set of manners:”

That new mode of life brings along with it a new set of manners, which I cannot easily describe. These new manners being grafted on the old stock produce a strange sort of lawless profligacy…The manners of the Indian natives are respectable compared with this European medley (77).

To conclude, Crevecoeur, through his narrator, James gives several reasons why hunting is inferior to farming, including comparing man to plants, and showing how the two can work cooperatively to sustain life, and that animals have an inherent civilized nature that is lost when subject to hunting my less civilized wild-men.

ENL 142: Short Essay Submission 2

The Female American by Unca Eliza Winkfield, page 121:

My next fear was for the poor Indians, who would come in the evening, and not finding me by the shore…would no doubt come upon the island, in search of me, and be taken for slaves. Nor might the evil stop thus; their country might be discovered, and probably invaded, and numbers of the people be carried away into slavery, and other injuries committed.

“The Most Remarkable and Strange State Situation and Appearance of Indian Tribes in the Great Continent” by Samuel Occam, page 58:

…when I come to look and view the nations of the World I can’t see that they [the Indians of America] are under Greater Curse than other nations…and when I come to Consider and See the Conduct of the Most Learned, Polite, and Rich Nations of the World, I find them to be the Most Tyrannical, Cruel, and inhuman oppressors, and their Fellow Creatures in the World, these make all the confusions and destructions among the Nations of the Whole World, they are the nations that enslave the poor Negroes in Such Barbarous manner, as out do the Savage Indians in North America, and these are Called Christian Nations…

Both of the passages point to the hypocrisy that exists among the English when one considers their Christian ideals versus the slavery perpetuated by the English in the New World. Both Unca Eliza Winkfield and Samuel Occam were trans-cultured Native Americans, and both point out how the humanity of the English is lacking, primarily in the way that the English take slaves. Slavery, no matter how well the slaves may be treated, is still wrong in that it strips humanity of its liberty and rights. In that sense, slavery should be contrary to the beliefs of Christians at this time (or any time for that matter), but instead it is embraced as a staple of “modern” English colonial society.

Both authors attribute knowledge and civility to the English, and yet still understand that civility does not equate to universal philanthropy and liberty. Instead, the English are self-serving, and ethnocentric, believing that all cultures outside their own, especially of non-Christian origins, are lacking even basic human qualities deserving of respect. For example, Unca fears that her Indian friends will not only be taken as slaves but also that “their country might be discovered, and probably invaded, and numbers of the people be carried away into slavery, and other injuries committed.” This passage really reveals her mistrust of the intentions of the English who have stumbled upon her island, and her fears seem out of place with someone who was basically raised in an English community, and spend most of her youth in England. She recognizes that despite the civility of the English, they suffer from a savagery in the form of enslaving for wealth and gain.

Her views are very similar to Samuel Occam, who was not raised in an English society, does not have English blood, and did not spend much time in England during his life. He points out a paradox of nations, as he writes: “I come to consider and see the conduct of the most learned, polite, and rich nations of the world, I find them to be the most tyrannical, cruel and inhuman oppressors.” Such descriptions paint the English in a conflicting manner, since it is hard to imagine a nation to be both polite and cruel at the simultaneously. His disgust is even more apparent when he remarks that “…these are called Christian nations…” In this way he makes it obvious that savagery and barbarism is not limited to only heathens, and such problems occur even with good “Christian” nations. This paradox, however, is not an isolated case with these two Native American authors; this idea is carried through many works of this time as writers try to maintain the Christian values that the English put forth with the savage brutality of slavery that they value.

ENL 142: Short Essay Submission 1

--but we boast no feats

Of cruelty like Europe’s murdering breed--

Our milder epithet is merciful…

Gold, fatal gold, was the alluring bait

To Spain’s rapacious tribes--hence rose the wars

From Chili to the Caribbean sea,

And Montezuma’s Mexican domains:

More blest are we, with whose unenvied soil

Nature decreed no mingling gold to shine…

…more noble riches flow

From agriculture, and the industrious swain,

Who tills the fertile vale, or mountain’s brow

Content to lead a safe, a humble life…

In this passage is from pages 9 and 10 of Poems of Freneau, from his poem “The Rising Glory of America,” the speaker, Eugenio, is discussing what he calls the blessings and “more noble riches” of North America compared with those of South America. The speaker describes an image of war-torn South America, from Chile, to the Caribbean, including Mexico, fighting over what he calls the “fatal gold.” This seems appropriate, since after the discovery of the Maya in Mexico by Cortez, and the Incans in Peru by Pizarro, the Spaniards became obsessed with the wealth of the New World in the form of jewels, gold, and other precious metals. North America does not have overwhelming riches that are “boasted” to the rest of the world by Spain following the conquests. This blood-thirsty drive for wealth led the Spanish to ravage many tribes across South America, leading to wars that lasted for decades and decimated entire cultures within only a few years. The North American lands, however, were not rich in those kinds of jewels, as the speaker points out, but instead rich with soil that could grow many different kinds of crops successfully and abundantly.

The wealth of North America comes instead from the agriculture that the rich soil provides, and agriculture is the result of hard work. As the speaker goes on to point out, the gift of fertile soil is nothing without the hardworking farmer, the “industrious swain,” who is “content to lead a safe and humble life.” It is through his hard work that America is bestowed yet another kind of noble wealth: that of virtue earned through hard work and humble existence. This wealth is priceless, and timeless, unlike the wealth of material riches, which is fleeting. It is also industrious, built on hard work, which only adds to the nobility of the American farmer: their wealth does not come from stripping other people, mainly natives, of their materials, and instead comes from working the land to make grow riches from the soil.

It is that wealth of virtue, earned through the hard, honest work of the land, that Freneau seems so proud of in this particular work. Compared with the cruelty of the Europeans, especially the Spanish, the Americans are described as peaceful, wanting nothing more than to live free of the tyranny of England and the other nations of Europe. In taking a stand against Europe in this way, the American speakers in this poem see themselves as being more civilized, noble, and virtuous than their European brethren.