Abstract
A Frenchman by birth, Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur (1735?-1813) soon transformed himself into Hector St. John as part of his quest to become an epitome of the American farmer. Leaving his mother land around 1754 as a pioneer to French Canada, he finally settled in America in the neighborhood of New-York in 1759, and became an American citizen in 1765. He adopted his new country with great enthusiasm, changing his name and, undoubtedly, much of his identity. By the eighteenth century, Americans were rather pleased at having successfully converted the wilderness into an agricultural garden where the human values, highly promoted by Jefferson, would thrive. In 1782, "Letters From an American Farmer?, a series of twelve essays, introducing James, Crèvecoeur's narrator and double as an American farmer were published. Crèvecoeur wrote about a man writing to somebody, which creates a mirror effect. This was an immediate success, especially because the essays reflcted the internal conflicts of the American Revolution and the developing American identity.
