When Voltaire released Candide: Ou, L’Optimisme in 1759, Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecour was preparing to cultivate his garden on the Pennsylvania frontier. Like Candide’s naive protagonist, Crèvecour, weary of the civilized world's atrocities, longed for a peaceful rural life, which he enjoyed for nineteen years until the American Revolution disrupted it. His collection, Letters from an American Farmer, conveys themes through twelve essays, appearing as though written by one new to writing. The opening letter clearly sets the theme: the decay of European civilization positions the American frontier as a beacon of hope for humanity’s renewal. Crèvecour questions why people visit Italy just to admire temple ruins and dilapidated amphitheaters, which cause sadness, whereas he finds joy in the modest beginnings of society emerging throughout the colonies, as forests are turned into fields and thirteen provinces form with simple livelihoods and political order. He describes himself as "a Tabula rasa," a blank slate imprinted with vivid impressions. Likewise, he views America as a fresh canvas to build a new society and way of life. Crèvecour may be seen as a romanticized Locke follower, yet he tempers idealism with practicality, acknowledging reality’s imperfections. The book offers a raw, sincere testimony of a man striving to believe in the ideal life championed by Rousseau. Modestly, suited to one who learned English at sixteen, Crèvecour admits his writing limitations and opts to record his thoughts plainly. His style lacks smooth colloquial flow, except in moments of passion. Despite the enthusiasm, his depiction isn’t exaggerated. He portrays Colonial America as a "new continent; a modern society," held together by "the silken bands of mild government" where laws are followed not out of fear but because "Americans are equitable." In his view, America’s divide between rich and poor is narrower than Europe’s, contrasting with Europe’s "great lords who possess everything, and of a herd of people who have nothing," whose people suffer from poverty, hunger, war, harsh laws, prisons, and punishments. Playfully embracing the nickname "farmer of feelings" given by a respected English correspondent, he expresses emotionally how America is a place where "individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world."
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