_Causes of Emigration from Norway.
General Factors, Economic._
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.
[36] That is, "Northman."
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]
[37] A great change for the better has been taking place during the
last few years.
[38] Thus the failure of crops and the famine in Northern Sweden,
Finland, and Norway in 1902 was followed by a vastly increased
immigration from these sections. See above page 28. Compare
Table II, Appendix.
[39] The area and population of the three countries are:--Sweden,
area 172,876 sq. m., population in 1901, 5,175,228; Norway,
area 124,129, population in 1900, 2,239,880; Denmark, area
15,360, population in 1901, 2,447,441.
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.
[40] _First Chapter, etc._
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]
[41] _Billed-Magazin_, 1869, pp. 82-83.
[42] _Billed-Magazin_, 1869, pp. 6-7.
[43] In 1868, Mr. Luraas moved to Webster County, Iowa, returning
to Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1873. I knew him in the early
nineties as a well-to-do retired farmer living in Stoughton,
Wisconsin. He died in 1894.
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]
[44] Letter copied from the original by R. B. Anderson in 1896 and
printed in _First Chapter_, pp. 135-136.
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.