Hector St. Jean deCrèvecoeur
(1735–1813)

When naturalized French author J. Hector St. Jean de Crèvecoeur visited Nantucket in 1772, he wrote a description in his widely read book, Letters from an American Farmer:

To the southeast is a great division of the island, fenced by itself, known by the name of Siasconset lot. It is a very uneven track of ground, abounding with swamps; here they turn in their fat cattle, or such as they intend to stall-feed, for their winter’s provisions. It is on the shores of this part of the island, near Pochick Rip, where they catch their best fish, such as sea bass, tew-tag, or blackfish, cod, smelt, perch, shadine, pike, etc. They have erected a few fishing houses on this shore, as well as at Sankate’s Head and Sussakatche Beach, where the fishermen dwell in the fishing season.

At Siasconset, Crèvecoeur visited a fishing shack occupied by a family with numerous ruddy and healthy children—the only occupied residence in the settlement. The family lived by fishing, “for the plough has not dared yet to disturb the parched surface of the neighboring plain. ”Their house “had been built on the ruins of one of the ancient huts erected by the first settlers for observing the appearance of the whales.” Crèvecoeur stayed with the unidentified family two days; at eclams, oysters, Indian dumplings, and fish; and observed the mother and daughters weaving and the father and sons fishing.

Although Crèvecoeur’s descriptions of a pure, simple, and utopian American society were written with a European audience in mind, his remarks about ’Sconset ring true, and certainly fit with the few slim facts we know about the early settlement.That a whale station existed there long before his visit has been asserted by a number of writers, and his record of “several” fishing huts supports the evidence of the 1775 plot plan that shows eight houses and a look out platform in a row along the bank.

J. Hector St. Jean de Crèvecoeur

A digital exhibition by the Nantucket Historical Association