Why Did They Leave Europe?
Most of our ancestors were either farmers or lived in small villages in rural areas. Thus their reasons for leaving were directly tied to the condition surrounding land use and/or agriculture. The problems associated with the political situation or industrialization / urbanization affected them only indirectly and are listed at the end of this article.
1.) Crop failures.
Many of our ancestors were poor subsistent farmers. In all three areas our ancestors inhabited the potato was an important crop. However, in central Europe and Scandinavia there were other food crops that could be used as staple food items. In Ireland it was the primary food crop for most peasant farmers. In 1845, a blight swept over Europe destroying not only the potato crop but also those potatoes remaining in storage. Not only was the current crop destroyed but also many of the seed potatoes counted on for the next yearıs crop. The hardest hit country was Ireland where nearly 80% of the crop was destroyed.
Starvation was soon followed by disease. It has been estimated that nearly one million people died during this time period. Although most historians limit the years of the Potato Famine to five (1845 -1850), the effects were felt for many years after. During a ten year period it is estimated that over two million people, one-fourth of the population, left the island, including these Irish ancestors:
Bardens 1846
Forrests 1850
McCulloughs 1851
O Rourkes 1852
Culletons & Conways 1854
In my research I have also learned that other types of crop failures were also included among the reasons to migrate for Anders Nelson and most of our Norwegian ancestors. In Sweden it was reported that during the1850s the nation suffered a succession of poor harvests. Other specific details are not readily available. In addition, an article I researched on German emigration listed a wheat failure; however, no dates were given.
2.) Lack of available land.
I
remember an instance when Cheryl and I were talking to a Fretheim in Flam,
Norway during our trip in 2000. He
pointed to the surrounding hills covered with trees. When the Fretheims left Norway (1867) he stated that there
wasn not a tree left on the hillside.
Over time they had all been used for building, firewood, etc. Without
trees the good farming land began to erode. Many soon left.
We heard similar stories when visiting the Lee farm in Vinje, Norway and
the Nelson farm in Sweden.
In
Ireland the primary reason for this lack of land was political. During the 1600s the British
confiscated approximately twelve million acres of land and gave it to
Protestants. This confiscation continued until 1800 when these English landlords
held nearly 90% of the land. Most of these plantations or estates were owned by
absentee landlords who had very little interest in the land except to spend the
rent money as it came in. Agents called middlemen administered the property.
The Catholic Irish became tenant farmers called cottiers.
During the early years of the 19th
century many Irish were evicted from their land. Their British landlords had discovered that raising sheep or
beef cattle was more profitable than crops. They began to continuously raise the rents until the Irish
families could no longer pay it.
They then moved in, evicted the tenants, and burned their homes to the
ground to force them to leave the area.
These
evictions increased during the Great Famine when the British passed a law
stating that an individual or family could not receive public assistance if
they had land. Many Irish turned
their leases over to their landlords in their efforts to feed themselves and
their families.
The growing
population is all Europe is another reason for this lack of land. This was due
to an increasingly stable food supply and improved sanitation, health care, and
living conditions. Major reduction
in the infant mortality rates contributed heavily to this population boom. In Ireland, perhaps the poorest of the
areas I studied, the population had increased from 5 million in 1800 to 6.8
million in 1821 to approximately 8.5 million in 1845 when the Famine
struck. In Sweden the population
doubled between 1750 and 1850. One of the main reasons for this was a fall in
infant mortality from 21% in 1750 to 15% in 1850.
A quote from a website
describes this in more detail:
The
famous Swedish bishop and poet Esaias Tegne'r explained the population pressure
in three words: "peace, vaccination and potatoes." He thereby
referred to the fact that Sweden had not been in war since the fatal Russian
war of 1809 and the successful Danish one of 1814. Smallpox vaccination had
reduced the infant mortality from 21% in 1750 to 15% in 1850. Potatoes became a
nutritious supplement to the poor man's bread. The combined affects of such
benefits resulted in a growth in population which in turn produced other
problems for society. The number of Swedes doubled between 1750 and 1850. ( www.americanwest.com/swedemigr/pages/emigra.htm
)
In the Sogn region
of central Norway, where several of our ancestors were from, the population
grew by 94% between 1769 and 1845.
Prussia doubled its population between 1815 and 1860. There were several reports of the
cities quickly becoming overcrowded and the availability of jobs there
declining, forcing people to either return to their homes in the rural areas or
to migrate to the United States
3.) Inheritance practices.
As
mentioned above, most of our ancestors were farmers. Most lived on very small plots of land. The primary reason for this was the
inheritance system.
In
Ireland the land was normally divided equally amongst all the sons, a practice
known as sub-division. Over
several generations the tenant farms would become smaller and smaller. Most of
the farms were less than five acres.
Of this the best four acres were devoted to paying the rent. The family itself lived off of a one
acre garden plot. Thus we can see
the dependence on potatoes, a crop that could be grown in the poorest
conditions with little labor.
The potato contains considerable food energy, and yet is very easy
to cultivate. Typical farming practice of the era seeded a field once after
being hoed, and future years' crops were "seeded" by simply leaving
some of the potatoes unharvested in the ground. Weeding was minimal, and
irrigation unnecessary. The potato had become Ireland's major food crop after
being introduced sometime around 1650, though its dominance was not achieved
until around the 1780s . Even small plots could provide enough calories for a
family and also to feed pigs, providing access to meat, while they could also
be sold, providing extra income. Other
lands were used for cash crops like flax . The abundance
of food and cash led to a rise in population in Ireland.
The potato's benefits also led to a dangerous inflexibility in the
Irish food system. The majority of calories were being provided from a single
crop. That alone is not unusual, and is still the case today for many
subsistence farmers around the world. However the traditional Irish practice of
sub-dividing plots among the male children of a family, though reducing was
still widely practiced in the poorer areas of the country. The use of the potato
and sub-division produced two interlinked side-effects; with increased calories
the number of surviving male heirs was quickly increasing, while with the
prospect of inheriting a land-holding, heirs married young and produced large
families-hence increasing subdivision into smaller estates for their own heirs
In 1845, for example, 24% of all Irish tenant farms were of 0.4 to
2 hectares (one to five acres ) in size, while 40% were of 2 to 6 hectares
(five to fifteen acres). This included marshland and bog land that could not be
used for food production. As a result, holdings were so small that the only
crop that could be grown in sufficient quantities, and which provided
sufficient nourishment to feed a family, was potatoes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Potato_Famine
To
apply this to our ancestors, letıs use what we know of the Conways. We have found records listing an
unnamed Conway who had 11 children, five of them sons who lived to
adulthood. One of these was
Richard Conway who migrated to Waseca County. If he had remained in Ireland, he would have received
one-fifth of tenant holdings of his father. If his father had the typical five acres, Richard would thus
be forced to live on one acre of land.
In Scandinavia there was an opposite inheritance practice that contributed to the migration. Odelsrett restricted who could be bequeathed land in a person's will. The first-born son usually received all the land upon the death of the father. We know for example that Knutem, the father of Aslak Lee, was the 11th of 12 children and the sixth son. He was thus forced to become a husmann. His children were also forced to live as husmann. For Anders Nelson in Sweden it was much the same. His father was a topare, a holder of a torp. This was a very small piece of land that was rented for a limited time, often 40 to 50 years. Doing a certain number of days of work for the landowner paid his rent.
This same system was also practiced
in central Europe, especially northwestern Germany and Prussia. The proper term here is primogeniture.
Under this system only the eldest son could inherit the land. In
addition entail laws made
it illegal for this son to divide his newly acquired property. Because land was becoming scare and
quite expensive, these siblings saw moving to America as the answer to their
need and desire for land. The Borchardts, Lorenzs, and Kannes were all affected
by these practices.In southwestern Germany, where the Bauers / Webers migrated
from, the system was much like Ireland under which the land was sub-divided
amongst all the children.
4.) Lack of social
mobility.
Socially,
people in Norway lived under a strict social system. There were three social
classes: the land-owning farmers, the husmann or cotters who were tenant
farmers renting the land they worked, and those who were without property. We know that several of our ancestors
belonged to the husmann class. The
list included the Lees, Hagens, and Fretheims; other ancestors probably
belonged as well although we arenıt sure of their status.
A website provides us with a ranking:
Lowest: Beggars, menial laborers, many
were orphans or illegitimate or both.
Hardly
Better: The
"good-for-nothing" Danish or Swedish soldiers stationed in Norway.
Next: Servants hired out at age 15 or
younger.
Next: Husmenn and families (provided
contract help on a farm).
Next: Craftsmen such as shoemakers,
smiths, stonemasons, carpenters.
Next: Foderaad couples (who had turned
over the farm to others), widows.
Next: Farm 'users' who were leasing
small farms from the owners.
Next: Bonder, who's families owned
their farms forever.
Next: School teachers, priests, civil
officers.
Next: Nobility who were still largely
Danish since Black Death times.
Next: Danish (later Swedish) royalty
governing Norway
( http://www.valdressamband.org/)
Under this system, people were
expected to show public signs of respect to members of the upper classes. For
example, if a man of a high social class were to talk to a man of a lower
class, the man from the lower class was expected remove his hat as a sign of
respect to the other man's higher status. This was a very humbling experience
for the man of lower status. The
United States did not have an official caste system or such strict protocol for
interactions among people, many Norwegians looked at the U.S. as an appealing
place to live.
The Irish society was also very
structured. At the top were the
Protestant English and Anglo-Irish families who owned most of the land. The agents or middlemen were next. The tenant farmers followed. At the bottom were the agricultural
laborers who wandered the countryside looking for work. Upward mobility was extremely
difficult. Most of this lack of
mobility was built into law.
In the 1690s the Penal Laws,
designed to repress the native Irish were introduced. The first ordered that no
Catholic could have a gun, pistol, or sword. Over the next 30 years the other Penal laws followed:
- Irish Catholics were forbidden
to receive an education,
- enter a profession,
- vote,
- hold public office,
- practice their religion,
- attend Catholic worship,
- engage in trade or commerce,
- purchase land, lease land,
- receive a gift of land or
inherit land from a Protestant,
- rent land worth more than thirty
shillings a year,
- own a horse of greater value
than five pounds,
- be the guardian to a child,
- educate their own children or
send a child abroad to receive an education
5.) Religious persecution.
The
Penal Laws as described above can definitely be used as an example of religious
persecution. I am assuming that
religious persecution was a factor for the Finleys, but from the opposite end
of the spectrum. They
had left Scotland for northern Ireland, an area primarily Protestant in religious
practices. They then moved to
Dublin. I could not find any
direct evidence but I have to think they faced heavy pressure from the Irish
Catholics in Dublin before they emigrated to America.
We
also know that religious pressure was a concern for Anders Nelson in central
Sweden. In a play presented
by the Bjurtan Theatre Group in the summer of 2004 at the Swedish Institute in
Minneapolis, we saw the oppression of the state Church and the local
pastor. Anders and his brothers
became victims of this oppression and believed their best option was to flee to
the United States.
6.) Unstable political situations and a
lack of political power.
Around this time
(1848), revolutions in opposition of the monarchical governments were springing
up throughout Europe. This was especially true in central Europe where many of
our German ancestors came from.
The revolutions failed and resulted in even stricter regulations being
placed upon the people. To avoid these authoritarian governments and their
restrictions, many individuals fled Europe. Others left because they
feared constant political turmoil. Over the next decade over a
million people left Germany and settled in the United States, including the
Kannes and Stillers (1857).
For the Norwegians it was a search
for increased political freedom and participation.
The
fact that the U.S. was a republic where the people held regular elections to
place political officials in power was appealing to many people in Norway.
During the nineteenth century, Norway only gave the right to vote to an elite
minority of the population. Suffrage in the United States was not given to
everyone in the nation, but white men were given universal suffrage in the
1820s, and by the end of the 1860s many states were looking into the
possibility of allowing some women the right to vote as well. The possibility
of voting rights was quite appealing to many Norwegian men and women. ( http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/mnstatehistory/norwegian_migration.html)
7.) Mandatory military service.
This
concerned Anders Nelson where young men were forced to join the military 30 or
more days a year. The same held
true in Prussia where universal military service was introduced in 1848. Due to the growing population it was
largely ignored until the time of Wars for Unification under Otto Bismarck
(1864-1871). It was during this
time period that the Bauers/ Webers, Meyers, and Lorenzs all left Germany.
8.) Economic Hardships.
A
study of the reasons emigrants gave when they left Germany shows the number one
reason for leaving their homeland was to make a better living. One of the problems most of our
ancestors faced was a lack of money.
Rural Europe was shifting from a subsistence, barter economy to a cash
economy. Most farmers, especially
tenant farmers, lacked cash.
We are not sure how something like
the Industrial Revolution directly affected our ancestors but we can easily
speculate. Increasing
industrialization and the use of machines to perform tasks previously done by
manual labor threatened cottage industries, especially the weaving of cloth by
the women, and drove many individuals to the cities in search of employment.
Unfortunately, the cities quickly became overcrowded and the availability of
jobs there also declined, forcing some people to return to their homes in the
rural areas or to migrate to the United States.
The
Meyers were the only ancestors who might have come from a large city. They list Hanover as their German
home. Unfortunately, Hanover is
both a city and a province in Germany.
They do list their occupation as cigarmaker, one probably found in the
city not the rural countryside.
Thus we tend to favor the city of Hanover as their home. Hanover was indeed hit with industrialization. Did this reach the cigar industry? We must assume it did.
As
mentioned in the introduction to this paper, most of our ancestors came from
rural farms or villages. Thus the
reasons listed in the early sections of this paper seem to be more important
than the Industrial revolution. A
mention should be made of Anders Nelson.
It seemed that Sweden had entered a long period of peace and the local
factory that produced cannons and other weapons of war had recently been
closed. Thus we have another
example of economic hardship but with a different twist.
9.) Persuaded to come to the U.S. by friends and relatives, emigration
officials, newspapers and writers, and solicitors.
This
is an interesting topic, one that could be pursued in great depth, especially
what was termed as the American Letters.
Letters from America were sent from relatives and friends who had
already emigrated, they were read and then passed around to friends, neighbors,
church groups, taverns, etc. Many
included pictures of the new land.
Most were highly complimentary of life in America.
We have no idea if any of these
letters played a role in the decisions made by our ancestors. In most cases our ancestors were among
the first, if not the first, family members to leave the old land. Thus the role of the letters may have
been minimal. However, I have
found some examples on the internet of some letters written during the time
period these individuals an families migrated and have attached them to the end
of this essay.
I also found examples of
newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, etc. that were used to entice individuals
and/or families to leave their homeland.
The state of Minnesota even established its first office of promotion
just 10 years after it became a state (1868). Like the office of tourism does today, this office prepared
and distributed promotional materials describing the state. In addition, handbooks about America
were printed, often with travel advice and useful information for the
emigrants.
Steamships, railroads, land
agencies also promoted the concept of migration to this new land of plenty
where the streets were paved with gold.
These businesses often sold prepaid tickets sent by earlier emigrants
who had established themselves in America to their friends and relatives back
home. The new emigrants usually
agreed to work for the payer for a year in order to pay back the ticket. For example, in the 1870 Minnesota
census we find a domestic servant living
with A.K. and Betsy Lee. Knowing
the Lees were not that prosperous after only one year of marriage and living on
the farm, we must assume this was a temporary arrangement and the young woman
moved on after she had paid back her debt.
10.) Personal reasons:
problems with one's family or with the law, debt, a tarnished reputation.
I
know little of these personal problems but assume they exist. A rumored story about the Conway family
might be worth telling here. There
were several Conway families who were evicted by their landlord, a man by the
name of Boyd, for nonpayment of rent. Only one Conway, James, remained on the
land. A short time later the
landlord was killed, about the same time the Conways were migrating to
Canada. Two different people told
this story to me during our Irish trip.
I have no proof of its reliability. However it is fun to speculate what role the Conway family
might have played in this crime.
Some
of our ancestors may have experienced a life-changing event immediately before
they left their homeland. We know
that Anders Nelson mother died just before he emigrated and this may have
played an important role in his decision.
At the other end of the spectrum would be the marriage of Daniel Forrest
and Margaret Sullivan who left Ireland to start their new life together. Although their entire families migrated
with them, James Conway and Margaret Culliton also married shortly before they
left for America.
*************************
In
closing, I have tried to associate our family with ten common reasons why
millions of people left Europe during the 1800ıs to emigrate to America. I
found the ten generic reasons at several websites. I combined, prioritized, and personalized the material. Speculation has been
rampant. I have little specific
data that would stand serious scrutiny.
However, with just a minor stretch of the imagination one should be able
to understand some of the reasons why our ancestors left their homeland to come
to the United States.
|
|
|
|
Leaving Home (next article) |
|
|
|
|
|
|