Letters From An American Farmer

Nonfiction | Collection of Letters | Adult | Published in 1782

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Letters I-III

Letters IV-VIII

Letters IX-XII

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Nature

James also explores the connections between the people and their environment on a more symbolic level, frequently drawing parallels between human and animal behavior or presenting animal behavior as a model to which humans should aspire. On several occasions, he celebrates the industry and organization of bees and the diligence of birds, concluding that “the whole economy of what we proudly call the brute creation is admirable in every circumstance,” and superior to the “the imperfect systems of men” (35). He draws similar symbolic comparisons in his discussion of his relationship with his cattle, using the dynamics to demonstrate his views on the nature and purpose of government. He asserts that cattle need governing because the behaviors and inclinations of cattle “are exactly the same as among men” and concludes that “the law is to us precisely what I am in my barn-yard, a bridle and check to prevent the strong and greedy from oppressing the timid and weak” (30).

Comparisons between plants and humans also appear regularly, with a particular focus on the suitability of American soil for healthy plants and healthy societies, which helps to illuminate the thematic concern with environments shaping the people who inhabit them. This can be seen in statements like “[m]en are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow” (44). However, it is most obvious in the minister’s pronouncement that James “will appear to [Mr. F.B.] something like one of our wild American plants […] which an European scholar may probably think ill-placed and useless” (17) but which thrives in America. We see this same perspective offered in James’s declaration that the poor of Europe “were as so many useless plants […] mowed down by want, hunger, and war” but, in moving to America, “by the power of transplantation, like all other plants they have taken root and flourished” (42).

Nantucket

Nantucket functions as a symbolic representation of the best aspects of the American character, and the pinnacle of what an American can achieve. The settlers’ diligence and innovations transform the island to such a degree that “every natural obstacle has been removed by a vigorous industry” (85). As such, the inhabitants symbolize the sober industriousness that is key to the American character while the very fact that the island is inhabited symbolizes the pioneering spirit and dedication to building peaceful communities against the odds. James highlights this directly when he suggests that Nantucket “seems to have been inhabited merely to prove what mankind can do when happily governed!” (84). James applauds the absence of “coercive powers” (103), the sharing of land in common, the gentle governance, and the religious and social cooperation of the inhabitants, again holding them up as examples of idealized American identity. Similarly, he is impressed by the way that, while “slavery prevails all around them,” the community offers “the world a singular example of moderation, disinterestedness, and Christian charity in emancipating their Negroes” (137). In this manner, Nantucket again symbolizes what is good about humanity, the moral heights to which the American character can ascend, and the possibilities for decent, honest community that America offers.

Slavery

While Nantucket represents the best of the American character and the great potential of America itself, slavery represents the lowest level to which humanity can descend, and the greatest failings of the American colonies. After seeing “a Negro, suspended in [a] cage and left there to expire,” and realizing with horror that “birds had already picked out his eyes” (164), James is disgusted with enslavers. He is horrified by the way the population of Charles Town “neither see, hear, nor feel for the woes of their poor slaves, from whose painful labours all their wealth proceeds” (153). However, these horrors symbolize more than the terrible cruelty of slavery itself, representing the way that “man, an animal of prey, seems to have rapine and the love of bloodshed implanted in his heart” (159). In this respect, slavery comes to signify the darker sides of human nature and the corruption, violence, and hypocrisy hidden beneath the supposed egalitarianism of America and the decency of the American character. From this, it also ultimately symbolizes James’s descent into disillusionment and despair.

Native Americans

When James discusses Native Americans in the early stages of the book, he presents them as a people “hastening towards annihilation” (97). He suggests that Europeans are responsible for this, and that to a degree, Native Americans represent some of the violent failings of European and American culture. However, the fact that he also sees them as “a race doomed to recede and disappear before the superior genius of the Europeans” (100-01) and only celebrates them when they display what he considers to be European characteristics or adopt European religious practices, mitigates this, suggesting that they actually represent more closely the supposedly inevitable and, for James, laudable spread of “civilization.”

This changes later in the book, however. Once James has grown entirely disillusioned with the war-making, politics, and repressive white culture, he turns to Native American cultures as a more favorable way of existing in the world and, as such, Native Americans come to symbolize decent, just, and natural life. James, having witnessed the horrors of slavery, has already concluded that “the state of men in the woods” is preferable to “civilized society” (163), and believes that living among indigenous peoples will allow him “revert into a state approaching nearer to that of nature, unencumbered either with voluminous laws or contradictory codes” (201), highlighting Native people’s significance as a symbol for life as James believes it should be lived: in peace, in freedom, and in nature.