Sam Romney ENG 253 OA Final Draft Mahaffey 10/23/2011 Comparison of distinctly American Writers There are two

writers that come to mind when one thinks of what it is to be American. Hector St John de Crevecoeur and Thomas Jefferson have completely different backgrounds and life history, but they share the same patriotic feelings in their writings. Crevecoeur was born in 1735 in France, he eventually moved to America where he started a farm, married his wife, and had two kids, he eventually moved back to France for two years. Thomas Jefferson on the other hand was born an American in Virginia. He was born in 1743, Jeffersons family was very wealthy he ended up attending college, he practiced law with one of the best legal scholars in the nation(George Wythe) and took part in Virginia colonial practices. Its hard to imagine these two individuals sharing the same views when they were raised in extremely different environments. Both Crevecoeur and Jefferson had harsh views of Europe, Crevecoeur even stating at one point that you cant belong to a country if you are impoverished and unhappy. Crevecoeur criticizes Europe for the way everything is set up with the nobles and slaves, making it harder for someone to work their way up in life. In America it is completely opposite, everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. Everyone is entitled to the pursuit of happiness. The only problem with this is that, according to popular belief, slaves werent people, they werent thought of as even human. This is one of the problems of America that Crevecoeur and Jefferson can agree on.

Crevecoeur talked about the problems of slavery in the South and how it is an evil thing that could ruin America. Jefferson aims to abolish slavery, having harsh opinions of it as well. He even quoted as saying it is an abominable crime. This was extremely contradictory because Jefferson was a slave owner himself, it really hurt his reputation and credibility. Somehow he expressed his distaste for slavery while still having a racist attitude. Making this even stranger, Jefferson even wrote laws in that would stop the importation of African American slaves. Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence. This document explains to the King of England why the colonists are forming their own country. It states what it is to be an American, explaining that people have equal opportunity here and that people are all entitled to rights. It mentions how unfair taxes are and all the other laws the king had made. This document can relate back to Crevecoeur when he was explaining how poorly England treated its people, and that there was no such thing as equal opportunity there. There are some very big differences between Jefferson and Crevecoeurs backgrounds. Crevecoeur eventually traveled back to France to live there for a few years, he experienced many tragedies including the death of his fianc, wife, and his farm being burnt to the ground. Crevecoeur was simply a writer and a farmer, he had no political power but he used his writing to motivate and explain how great America is. Jefferson also had many hardships in his life, he served two terms of presidency from 1801-1809. He worked hard to help out education and had to deal with the issue of how to incorporate Indians into the United States. His biggest challenge was to abolish slavery, he pushed it as much as he could. He felt it was impossible to change the minds of Virginians and have slavery abolished. Jefferson contributed to a lot of ideas and documents that formed America, he had a direct effect on the country unlike Crevecoeur.

In Crevecoeurs Letters from an American Farmer he uses emotion and writes in a much different fashion then Jefferson does in his Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson. This isnt to say that Jefferson doesnt have emotion(Jefferson has plenty of that), but in Jeffersons writings he is writing with the intention to convince someone, he is arguing a point. Jeffersons writings have much more of a purpose than just entertainment. Jefferson is presenting facts and making points trying to convince the reader to believe the same things he does. Crevecoeur on the other hand isnt trying to explain to a country why America is declaring independence, there isnt as much riding on his writings as there was on Jeffersons. In the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson he presents the unedited version of the Declaration of Independence. There were still people who had friends in England worth keeping, so congress went through it and edited out all the offensive text in the document. By making a point to let the world in on what the unedited version says, it looks like Jefferson doesnt really care what the English thought of him. It really shows how much trust and faith he has in the new country, being able to speak so boldly against, at that time, a country that is a super power. Jefferson and Crevecoeur share a kind of fearlessness in their writings. Crevecoeur in the fact that he discredits Europes system of doing things, and in the same works writes how incredibly it is to be an American. After doing this, he even went back to France to live for a while, which would make a profound statement that he is not afraid of the powers in Europe. Both Jefferson and Crevecoeur shared the same pleasure in seeing America move forward. This is the work of my countrymen, who, when convulsed by factions, afflicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took refuge here. They brought along with them their national genius, to which they principally owe what liberty they enjoy and what substance they possess (442). This sentence in Letters from an American Farmer really captures

the enthusiasm and passion Crevecoeur has for progress. It explains that America uses all the potential it has because its occupants are restless and impatient which taken out of context are negative ideas, but they are restless and impatient to move forward. To use their genius to make some serious progress. Jefferson did everything he could to help the country move forward in every aspect, he knew that a huge part of moving forward was breaking ties with England, which he did in the Declaration of Independence. Despite what people thought about him, he pushed forward even when the subject was controversially and would bring harsh judgment. Namely slavery, and the civilizing of the Native Americans. Both Jefferson and Crevecoeur knew how to capture the American attitude. They explained the obstacles and hardships everyone had to overcome when they came here. They are both optimistic for the most part about the country and both share the same general concerns about slavery. They both dont like England and the way the king has been treating everyone under his rule, both saying that they dont like the laws and how they thing people should have more equal opportunity. Its impressive how these two thought the exact same things about a subject, showing that if a person thinks that there is something seriously wrong, that they arent the only ones that think that. This enables people to make a change when they express their concerns and act on it as a group. Its the model of how change is made in a society. America was greatly influenced by both of these writers, even though they both came from different backgrounds and had different occupations (one a farmer and a writer and the other a U.S president). This in itself is a prime example of how America flourished with the diversity, both of these individuals had the same ideas, passions, and vision of how America is but they wrote them in a different fashion because of their background. By comparing these two writers it really shows how powerful the idea of what it means to be an American is. One of

these writers actively changed America while the other narrated the amazing consequences of that change.

Works Cited Crevecoeur, Hector St John de.Letters from an American FarmerThe Heath Anthology of American Liturature.Paul Lauter et al. Concise Ed. Boston: Houghton, 2004. 435-453.Print. Jefferson,Thomas. Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson The Heath Anthology of American Liturature.Paul Lauter et al. Concise Ed. Boston: Houghton, 2004.478-84.Print.