ipl-logo

Crevecoeur's Impact On The American Identity

1756 Words8 Pages

The frontier is the raw uncharted and undeveloped land in America. When America was founded individuals claimed land. Some argue that the frontier impacted the American identity such as De Crevecoeur, Quinney, and Turner. J. Hector ST. John De Crevecoeur was an author who wrote the Farmer Letters. In these letters De Crevecoeur addresses how America is a new type of person. This new type of person De Crevecoeur refers to are the individuals who came to America during the frontier. These individuals came from all over and hold different beliefs. De Crevecoeur finds that “Diverse nationalities and faiths, he said, might well ‘melt’ into a more peaceful, justice-loving, and prosperous original, and it should be the envy of the world” (Horwitz 23). The frontier brought about a whole new race of individuals who could bring a whole new perspective. De Crevecoeur explains these individuals stating, “The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared” (Horwitz 27). De Crevecoeur believes that the frontier played a big role in the formation of the American identity because of the melting pot of different races, ethnicities, beliefs and cultures that was Americans then and are today. John Wannuaucon Quinney was a Native American and leader who highly supported Native American tribes. Quinney was very vocal about the negative impact the frontier played on the formation of American identity.

Show More
Related

  • Introduction Of 1491 Part 1 Mann

    1083 Words  | 5 Pages

    Finally in part three it is said that The New World was not a wilderness when Europeans came. It is said that it was an environment where the indigenous peoples had changed for years using fire for their benefit. Manns point of view was different than the typical and more well known thoughts that Native Americans had no effect on their environment and that their land was mostly wilderness. In the Preface Mann talks about he first started wondering what America was like before Columbus while he was writing an article about a NASA program where he ended up in Chichen Itza. “The seeds of this book date back, at least in part, to 1983...

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Ahtna And Koyukon

    985 Words  | 4 Pages

    The basis of understanding of the “wilderness” was that it represented the devil’s landscape and was ever devouring, therefore necessitating the need to conquer not only for God but for own personal gain and gratification in a new environment. To the colonists, nature was something to conquer, and as mentioned in Taylor’s Wasty Ways, “…settlers meant to amass the property that endowed independence, with all its promises of material comfort, social respectability, and political rights. They also found encouragement in the precedent of their parents and grandparents, who had persevered through similar travails” (Taylor 300). Colonizing the environment not only became a conquest for salvation, but the chance of living a better life as their ancestors have. This chance, in the “New World”, was a chance to secure an individual’s future prosperity in a new environment.

    Read More

  • Influence Of Tecumseh On Native Americans

    128 Words  | 1 Pages

    Since the beginning of time Native Americans were never fully appreciated. Christopher Columbus voyaged to the New World and diminished what was left of the Native Americans along with their land. Tecumseh recognized the whites’ expansion westward as a threat to his people. In an effort to save Native American lands, Tecumseh ruled to organize a Native Confederacy that would fight the whites for land. When the U.S. opened up three million acres of land to whites the Native Americans could not stand by and wait to be moved or pushed further westward.

    Read More

  • Frederic Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis In Columbian Exposition

    57 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1893 Frederic Jackson Turner a historian, introduces the “Frontier Thesis” in Columbian Exposition, he explains from this thesis about the importance of American history. Frontier thesis remarks the end of a great historic society. Because Frederic Jackson argues that continuous western settlement had an extraordinary impact on American social, political and economic development throughout 20th

    Read More

  • The Dawes Act

    801 Words  | 4 Pages

    Voting Crisis 3 ~ Passage of the Dawes Act and the End of the Indian Wars As Western Homesteaders, who happen to be farmers, we strongly stood behind the passage of the Dawes Act and an end to the indian wars. Our reasoning for supporting the Dawes Act was that if the land held by the native Americans was no longer affiliated by tribe, it could be privatized, which would offer us the opportunity of acquiring more land. Furthermore, a reduction of conflict between ourselves and the indians would greatly increase our quality of life, as the constant threat of raids had become a great nuisance.

    Read More

  • Changes In The Land William Cronon Summary

    1677 Words  | 7 Pages

    The lens of Changes in the Land focuses on the Indians and how “their ability to move about the landscape” (Cronon 159), had been “severely constrained” by the actions of the Europeans, and how their life was affected by the settlement. The lens of Experiencing History: Interpreting America’s Past is one that speaks greatly of the Europeans and their life and their struggles and their point of view. This is specifically evident when the textbook speaks of “communities in conflict” (page 89), and how it spotlights the issues pertaining to the colonists. Another area where the textbook and Changes in the Land don’t align is the portrayal of the settlers and the way that they view and act on the land of New England.

    Read More

  • Westward Expansion Dbq Essay

    735 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lilly Fuller-Delmont                                        1/17/18 S.S8                        DBQ Essay                    Per.3 In the mid 18th century settlers moved to the west. Their move brought them more opportunities and a better lifestyle on the frontier. Such as the transcontinental Railroad.

    Read More

  • Puritan Ideas And John Winthrop's Impact On American Culture

    1394 Words  | 6 Pages

    They’re special and different, another instance of American exceptionalism and the overall overwhelming pridefulness both the United States and the back then Puritan’s share. During this farewell sermon, Cotton also states “In a vacant soil, he that taketh possession of it, and bestoweth culture and husbandry upon it, his right it is.” Upon God’s authority he tells the Puritan’s that what essentially becomes a base for Manifest Destiny, something John Winthrop also preached later

    Read More

  • The Trans-Mississippi West

    784 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the

    Read More

  • Summary Of Manifest Destiny And American Territorial Expansion

    1622 Words  | 7 Pages

    In the colonial era, through the Revolutionary War, the foundation of America was oratorically clarified as an act of prudence—that is, God led people, specifically the white Europeans, to America to find a new and superior or incomparable societal order that would be the light unto all realms.2 In fact, many settlers also believed in creating a new nation filled with history and stories. Along the same lines, Americans imagined a community created through selectively and elaborated events, myths of origin, courageous stories, and asserted values.3

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Scott Russell Sanders 'Staying Put: Making Home In A Restless World'

    402 Words  | 2 Pages

    The lines following line 44 are given in the tone of Salman Rudshie. He gives readers the tone that Americans are poor at adapting to the world, and they must learn from modern migrants who “make a new imaginative relationship with the world, because of the loss of familiar habits”. Rudshie’s critical tone goes on in lines 59-62, using the analogy of forcing industrial and commercial habits on foreign ground is synonymous if ‘the mind were a cookie-cutter and the land wer

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast William Bradford And John Winthrop

    1050 Words  | 5 Pages

    The arrival of the first Europeans in the Americas is dramatically captured through the many writers who attempted to communicate what they saw, experienced and felt. What is more, the very purposes of their treacherous travel and colonization are clearly seen in their writings; whether it is poetry, history or sermons. Of the many literary pieces available today, William Bradford and John Winthrop’s writings, even though vary because the first is a historical account and the second is a sermon, stand out as presenting a clear trust in God, the rules that would govern them and the reason they have arrived in the Americas. First of all, William Bradford provides an in-depth look into the first moment when the Puritans arrived in the Americas. In fact, he chronicles the hardships they face on their way to Plymouth, yet he includes God’s provision every step of the way.

    Read More

  • Mary Rowlandson Captivity Summary

    867 Words  | 4 Pages

    The narrative offers an account which can be used to describe the particularly puritan society based on the ideals of Christianity and the European culture. It offers a female perspective of the Native Americans who showed no respect to the other religious groups. The narrator makes serious observation about her captors noting the cultural differences as well as expectations from one another in the society. However, prejudice is evident throughout the text which makes the narratives unreliable in their details besides being written after the event had already happened which means that the narrator had was free to alter the events to create an account that favored her. Nonetheless, the narrative remains factually and historically useful in providing the insights into the tactics used by the Native Americans

    Read More

  • How Did The Enlightenment Influence The American Identity

    1522 Words  | 7 Pages

    The American identity has evolved over time. During the 1700’s, the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, occurred. It spread rapidly across Europe, and then to North America. This revolutionary way of thinking was crucial to the development of the American identity. The Enlightenment was the period for cultivation of science and human reason.

    Read More

  • Frontier Myth In American Culture

    1594 Words  | 7 Pages

    Perhaps the most significant myth in American culture is that of the American frontier generated by the European encounters with the American West. The most noticeable part of the frontier myth is the mythic struggle between modern civilization and wilderness. Frontier is defined as “the meeting point between savagery and civilization”. Turner believes that the American frontier is closely related to American civilization and that frontier

    Read More

More about Crevecoeur's Impact On The American Identity

Open Document