How Does One Define America?

How Does One Define America?

What is the definition of America? After the Revolutionary War, there were various versions of what America was defined as. Writers of the time period, including Royall Tyler, St. Jean de Crevecoeur, and Benjamin Franklin, all had their own opinions on the matter. For example, Tyler states that in America, "probity, virtue, and honour...will secure to an honest American" (Tyler 1188). Crevecoeur had the idea that in America a man was protected by laws and received "ample rewards for their labours" (Crevecoeur 856). Franklin perceived America as a place where "not as slaves but as freemen our money we'll give" (Franklin 950). These writers basically saw America as a place where anything was possible for a man to do so long as he was free. Defining America also brought about numerous definitions of what an ìAmericanî was. These "definitions" are each unique and slightly different, yet all strive to answer the ultimate question of how to define an American.

"Defining" an American was a fairly new concept for Royall Tyler. He wrote the play The Contrast not too terribly long after the Revolutionary War, in a time where "Americans" were just learning what it meant to be free from Great Britain. The setting of the writing, the production, and the action of The Contrast was a city with a long, conservative tradition: New York in 1787. In the play, several of the characters develop "American" values. For example: Manly portrays the patriotic, loyal soldier, carrying the tradition of self-reliant independence. He is simple and morally pure, but noble, a type not found in the British model of a "patriot." A description of Manly by another character in the play is "manly and noble; having tenderness and honour" (Tyler 1177).

These characteristics in a person were becoming common in the period after the Revolution. All of Manly's messages in the play were highly approved of by the audiences viewing it at the time, such as that "children should honor their parents; that siblings should be respective of each other; that citizens should have faith in and respect for their country; that one should live selflessly, especially for the good of the nation' (Pressman 98).