Letters From An American Farmer - Biographical Background

Biographical Background

Born in Caen, Normandy to an aristocratic family, Michel-Guillaume Hector St. John de Crèvecœur received a Jesuit education at the Jesuit Collège Royal de Bourbon. In 1754, having left school, Crèvecœur visited relatives in England where he became engaged; this visit would mark the beginning of a lifelong admiration for the culture and politics of the country. Shortly after this, possibly due to the death of his fiancée, he joined a French regiment in Canada engaged in the French and Indian War (1754–1763). After being wounded in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759), Crèvecœur resigned his commission and began travelling widely across Pennsylvania and New York.

In 1765, Crèvecœur became an official resident of New York and naturalized as a British subject, adopting the name J. Hector St. John. After working as a surveyor and trader during the subsequent four years, in which he travelled extensively, he purchased farm-land in Orange County, New York and married Mehitabel Tippett. It was during the following seven years that Crèvecœur wrote Letters from an American Farmer and corresponded with William Seton (referred to in the book as "Mr F. B.", and to whom the French edition was dedicated).

As local hostilities between the loyalists and revolutionaries escalated in the build-up to the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), Crèvecœur decided to return to France; it has since been suggested that he did so in order to secure his legal claim to his patrimony. Upon his arrival in New York City in 1778, Crèvecœur found himself under suspicion of being a Revolutionary spy and was detained; whilst in detention, he suffered a nervous collapse. He was released to travel in September 1780, and travelled to London after landing in Ireland. There, he sold the manuscript of Letters to publishers Davies & Davis before leaving for France.