American colonists arriving in these shores brought with them ideas of individual liberty and the natural right of property. If you worked hard and put in the time, the thinking goes, you were entitled to the fruits of your own labor. Crevecoeur sketches a convincing tableau that incorporates these philosophies into 18th century life in the New World. Instead of being given dominion over untamed land, the early settlers had to work to push back the woods and make the soil productive. At the same time, however, they were influenced by their surroundings to the point that even man’s basic humanity was at risk. Unlike the earlier Rowlandson, who writes of her stoic stand against wilderness that is enabled by the grace of God, Crevecoeur’s letters suggest that man’s interaction with nature works both ways.

In his passage on page 7, Crevecoeur describes in vivid detail the evils that befall new arrivals on the frontier. By mere fact of the “proximity of the woods,” these individuals have their actions “regulated by the wildness of the neighborhood.” The forest is rich with plant and animal life, but are also regarded as having hostile intent. Part threat and part opportunity, the critters that invade a man’s property necessitate proficiency with firearms. He shoots them to protect his claim and to take food. Yet once he becomes a hunter, Crevecoeur believes that the first domino has tipped in an inexorable cascade of effects.

The settler becomes gloomy and takes on the same savage nature as wild animals. He is opposed to socializing with other people, and retrogrades from farming to subsistence living. The cycle continues as each step encourages the next: neglected fields leads to more dependence on the “natural fecundity of the earth,” which in turn results in more time spent in the woods. These backward people are lazy, careless, and suffer from lack of proper education. Parents pass down these traits to their children by example, so that “they grow up a mongrel breed, half civilized, half savage, except nature stamps on them some constitutional propensities.” In Crevecoeur’s view, nature becomes an active force in shaping frontier inhabitants, as suggested by the vivid imagery of it “stamping” an impression on the people.

The woods offer “unlimited freedom” as opposed to the structure imposed by laws in civilization. It is liberating to those people who are used to oppression in Europe, but the wilderness takes it too far. Crevecoeur sees an unfavorable end in stooping down to the level of Native Americans, who repose in idle life without the good influence that comes with industry and work. He still believes that the wilderness must be overcome for the good of civilization. Americans who follow the wayward path are doomed to “contract the vices of both.” In this sense, the passage serves both as a warning and a reminder of the danger that nature can bring.