The United States is often portrayed as the "great melting pot,"" an idea that was existent even in the early years of colonial settlement. In an essay written c. 1770, the Frenchman Crevecoeur also incorrectly uses the "great melting pot- analogy to describe the racial composition, for the diverse mixture of cultures remained heterogeneous "i.e. although cultural blending existed, each ethnic group retained certain defining characteristics. If viewed as one entity, the colonial society did possess a "strange mixture of blood which [one] will find in no other country,"" but Crevecoeur failed to recognize that movement and cultural interaction is ever constant all over the globe at any given time in history. Therefore, he was wrong in alienating Colonial America as the only one effected by cultural blending. This brings one to magnify the view on Colonial America. Crevecoeur correctly stated that an American was one who willingly seized the opportunities offered, seeking a better life, changing a nobody into a somebody who was a useful citizen in society; but he adapted the wrong idea that all immigrants transformed into the same American. For example, many of the English, Germans, and Scots-Irish came to share in the freedom of religion and a democracy, but the English were either Puritan or Anglican, the Germans were Lutheran, and the Scots-Irish were Presbyterian. Secondly, Crevecoeur states that all Americans left behind "ancient prejudices and manners, [received] new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds."" Evident in the seizure of Native American land, the aristocratic South, slavery, and religious intolerance, the same people who were the poster children of democracy and equality kept their "ancient prejudices and manners,"" not yet "melted into a new race of men."" .
Instead of Crevecoeur's "great melting pot,"" the "great American potluck- would better depict the sharing of cultural ideas and customs that came together to form today's bountiful banquet.
