Letters From An American Farmer - Theme

Theme

Critics have noted how there is a change of tone in the text, from "joy, pride, wonder" at the spectacle of America, to the "images of the inhuman brutality of slavery".

• Letter I: Introduction - This letter introduces the persona of James, an American Farmer, and his epistolary dialogue with a minister in Oxford, England.
• Letter II: "On the Situation, Feelings, and Pleasures of an American Farmer" - This letter describes the creatures, plants, and activities on and around the farm owned by James. Its main focus is on the "bee's, wasps, hornets, and birds" (Patterson) and illustrates the abundance of life and the dependence on good soil in the American land.
• Letter III: "What is American?" - This letter compares people to plants and leads the reader to pursue the idea of whether or not the soil has anything to do with the prosperity of the person living there.
• Letter IV-VIII: This invades also the land in which they inhabit. It also describes the conditions in which they live and the customs of whaling villages of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
• Letter IX: "Description of Charles Town; Thoughts on Slavery; on Physical Evil; a Melancholy Scene" - This letter gives an account of Charleston, South Carolina. The letter then quickly moves to the notion of slavery in the South. It argues about the destruction that revolves around the slave-master relationships and makes an appeal to the North, in particular, that slavery is a truly evil practice in the midst of the new nation of America.
• Letter X: This letter talks extensively about a wide variety of snakes and even speaks to the American Indians practices of eating them. It also mentions their habits and stories that have been told in America, warning people about certain ones. At the end of this letter, it speaks about the hummingbirds found around James' land and their habits and varieties as well.
• Letter XI: This letter is supposedly narrated by a Russian, but is almost indistinguishable from James himself. It describes a visit to the famous Pennsylvanian botanist, Mr. John Bertram. The narrator tells of the new methods of fertilizing and irrigation that Bertram has invented and used on his own plants.
• Letter XII: "Distresses of a Frontier Man"- This letter describes the coming Revolutionary War and the narrator's stress of being caught between forces beyond his own control. This particular letter is the only one written that has any traces of anti-British ideas and opinions. The letter also includes James' view of the American Indians around him and his idea to run away with his family and live among them until the fighting is over.