Читать книгу A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States - George T. Flom - Страница 11

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What are the causes that have brought about the exodus from Norway and in general from the Scandinavian countries in the 19th century? The question is not a simple one to answer; for the causes have been many and varied, and it would be impossible in the following pages to discuss all the circumstances and influences that have operated to promote the northern emigration and directed it to America. Perhaps there is something in the highly developed migratory instinct of Indo-European peoples. Especially has this instinct characterized the Germanic branch, whether it be Goth or Vandal, Anglo-Saxon, Viking or Norman,[36] or their descendants, the Teutonic peoples of modern times, by whom chiefly the United States has been peopled and developed.

Of tangible motives, one that has everywhere been a fundamental factor in promoting emigration from European countries in modern times has been the prospect of material betterment. Where no barriers have been put against the emigration of the poor or the ambitious, unless special causes have arisen to create discontent with one’s condition, the extent to which European countries have contributed to our immigrant population may be measured fairly closely by the economic conditions at home. As far as the Northern countries are concerned I would class all these causes under two heads: the first will comprise all those conditions, natural and artificial, that can be summarized under the term economic; the second will include a number of special circumstances or motives which may vary somewhat for the three countries, indeed often for the locality and the individual.

First then we may consider the causes which arise from economic conditions. These are well illustrated by the Scandinavian countries, slightly modified in each case by the operation of the special causes. Norway is a land of mountains, these making up in the fact fifty-nine per cent of its total area, while forty-four per cent of the soil of Sweden is unproductive. The winters are long and severe, the cold weather frequently sets in too early for the crops to ripen; with crop failure comes lack of work for the laboring classes, and, burdened by heavy taxation, as was the Norwegian farmer only too often in the middle of the last century, debt and impoverishment for the holders of the numerous encumbered smaller estates. In Norway, especially, the rewards of labor are meagre and the opportunities for material betterment small.[37] “Hard times” and the inability of the country to support the rapidly increasing population has, then, been a most potent factor.[38] The same will hold true of Sweden, though in a somewhat less degree. Denmark is better able to support a population of one hundred and forty-eight to the square mile than Sweden one of twenty-eight or Norway one of eighteen.[39]

In this connection compare above the statistics of immigration from the three countries, which are much lower for Denmark than for Norway and Sweden. The Danes at home are a contented people, and it is noticeable also that it is they who are most conservative here, who foster the closest relation with the old home, and who consequently become Americanized last. The Norwegians are the most discontented, are readiest for a change, are quickest to try the new; and it is they who most readily break the bonds that bind them to their native country, who most quickly adapt themselves to the conditions here, and who most rapidly become Americanized.

Professor R. B. Anderson, in his book on the early Norwegian immigration[40] puts religious persecution as the primary cause of emigration from Norway. I cannot possibly believe that even in the immigration of the first half of the nineteenth century religious persecution was, except in a few cases, the primary or even a very important cause in the Scandinavian countries. In conversation with and in numerous letters from pioneers and their descendants, especially in Iowa and Wisconsin, I have found that the hope of larger returns for one’s labor is everywhere given as the main motive, sometimes as the only one. Whether it be the pioneers of La Salle County, Illinois, in the thirties, those of Rock or Dane counties, Wisconsin, in the forties, or the Norwegian settlers of Clayton and Winneshiek counties, Iowa, in the late forties and the fifties; the causes are everywhere principally economic. But letters written by pioneers and by those about to emigrate testify amply to the fact that it was the hard times that was the chief cause. And the same applies almost as generally to the Swedes; among the Danes the economic factor has not operated so extensively, though here, also, it was the preponderating cause.

A Norwegian journal, Billed-Magazin, published in Chicago in 1869–70 and edited by Professor Svein Nilsen, offers much that throws light on this question. It contains brief accounts of the early Norwegian immigration and the earliest settlements, a regular column of news from the Scandinavian countries, interviews with pioneers, etc. In one interview, Ole Nattestad, who sailed in 1837 from Vægli, Numedal, and became the founder of the fourth Norwegian settlement in America, that of Jefferson Prairie in Rock County, Wisconsin, and the neighboring Boone County in Illinois, describes his experience as a farmer in Numedal and how the difficulty of making any headway finally drove him to emigrate to America.[41] The statement of another pioneer I quote in its entirety.[42] It is that of John Nelson Luraas, who came from Tin in Telemarken, to Muskego, Wisconsin, in 1839, and in 1843 moved to Dane County, Wisconsin. He says:

I was my father’s oldest son, and consequently heir to the Luraas farm. It was regarded as one of the best in that neighborhood, but there was a $1,400 mortgage on it. I had worked for my father until I was twenty-five years old, and had had no opportunity of getting money. It was plain to me that I would have a hard time of it, if I should take the farm with the debt resting on it, pay a reasonable amount to my brothers and sisters, and assume the care of my aged father. I saw to my horror how one farm after the other fell into the hands of the lendsman and other money-lenders, and this increased my dread of attempting farming. But I got married and had to do something. Then it occurred to me that the best thing might be to emigrate to America. I was encouraged in this purpose by letters written by Norwegian settlers in Illinois who had lived two years in America. Such were the causes that led me to emigrate and I presume the rest of our company were actuated by similar motives.[43]

In a letter written by Andreas Sandsberg at Hellen, Norway, September twelfth, 1831, to Gudmund Sandsberg in Kendall, New York, the former complains of the hard times in Norway. In the spring of 1836 the second party of emigrants from Stavanger County came to America. On the 14th of May of that year Andreas Sandsberg wrote his brother Gudmund in America as follows:

A considerable number of people are now getting ready to go to America from this Amt. Two brigs are to depart from Stavanger in about eight days from now, and will carry these people to America, and if good reports come from them, the number of emigrants will doubtless be still larger next year. A pressing and general lack of money entering into every branch of industry, stops or at least hampers business and makes it difficult for many people to earn the necessaries of life. While this is the case on this side of the Atlantic there is hope for abundance on the other, and this I take it, is the chief cause of this growing disposition to emigrate.[44]

Ole Olson Menes, who came to America in 1845, is cited in Billed-Magazin, 1870, page 130, as follows, illustrating the prominence of the economic cause nine years later:

The emigrants of the preceding year (1844) … wrote home … and told of the fertility of the soil, the cheap prices of land and of good wages. In a letter which I received from Iver Hove, he writes that there they raise thirty-five bushels of wheat per acre, and the grass is so thick that one can easily cut enough in one day for winter feed for the cow. Such things fell to our liking, and many looked forward with eager longing to the distant West, which was pictured as the Eden that loving Providence had destined as a home for the workingman of Norway, so oppressed with cares and want.

Of those here cited, Nattestad was from Numedal, Luraas from Telemarken, Menes from Sogn, while Sandsberg came from Ryfylke. But the conditions were the same also in other provinces. In 1844, Hans C. Tollefsrude and wife emigrated from Land. Of the cause of his emigrating and that of early emigration from Land in general, his son Christian H. Tollefsrude of Rolfe, Iowa, writes me:

The causes were, no personal means and no prospect even securing a home in their native district, Torpen, Nordre Land (letter of July 27, 1904).

Rev. Abraham Jacobson of Decorah, Iowa, a pioneer himself, writes:

Reasons for emigrating were mostly economic, very few if any religious. … Wages here were at the very least double that in Norway, and generally much more than that.

Of the emigration from Ringsaker, I may cite Simon Simerson of Belmond, Iowa:

The causes were economic. In the case of my parents, they came here to create the home that they saw no chance of securing in the mother country. (Letter of Oct. 12, 1904.)

Similar evidence might be adduced for other districts and for all the older settlements throughout the Northwest. At a meeting held at the home of Ole O. Flom in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on July twenty-eighth, 1908, when the present writer read a paper on “Early Norwegian Immigration,” testimony to the same effect was given by old pioneers there present. There is no need of further multiplying the evidence.

A highly developed spirit of independence has always been a dominant element in the Scandinavian character—I have reference here particularly to his desire for personal independence, that is, independence in his condition in life. Nothing is so repugnant to him as indebtedness to others and dependence on others. An able-bodied Scandinavian who was a burden to his fellows was well-nigh unheard of. By the right of primogeniture the paternal estate would go to the oldest son. The families being frequently large, the owning of a home was to a great many practically an impossibility under wage conditions as they were in the North in the first half and more of the preceding century.

Thus the Scandinavian farmer’s son, with his love of personal independence and his strong inherent desire to own a home, finding himself so circumstanced in his native country that there was little hope of his being able to realize this ambition except in the distant uncertain future, listens, with a willing ear to descriptions of America, with its quick returns and its great opportunities. And so he decides to emigrate. And this he is free to do for the government puts no barrier upon his emigrating. This trait has impelled many a Scandinavian to come and settle in America; and it is a trait that is the surest guarantee of the character of his citizenship. Here, too, a social factor merits mention.

While the nobility was abolished in Norway in 1814, the lines between the upper and lower classes, the wealthy and the poor, were tightly drawn and social classes were well defined. And while Norway is today the most democratic country in Europe, and Sweden and Denmark are also thoroughly liberal (in part through the influence of America and American-Scandinavians), a titled aristocracy still exists in these countries. The extreme deference to those in superior station or position that custom and existing conditions enforced upon those in humbler condition was repugnant to them. Not infrequently have pioneers given this as one cause for emigrating in connection with that of economic advantage.