2019 Midterm2 (assignment) Index to Sample Midterm2 Answers Part 3. Research Report Starts

LITR 4340     American Immigrant Literature  Model Assignments

Lauren Kruse

Scandinavian Immigration of the 19^th Century: Kruseing Down to Texas

Like many Americans, I come from a family of immigrants; being a first-generation English-American on my Mother’s side and a fourth-generation Swedish-American on my Father’s.  Growing up I have learned much about the English culture and lifestyle and heard many stories regarding my Mother’s decision to travel to the States and her eventual settling in Texas.  However, being more distant from my family’s journey from Sweden, I have only heard the stories that have been passed down through several generations.  Stories of a cold Winter in Butte Montana, the journey to a Scandinavian settlement along the Gulf-coast of Texas (modern-day Pasadena), bountiful strawberry fields and the desire to establish an independent school district have all trickled down—yet the story of why my ancestors chose to leave Sweden and journey to America was never discussed.  In the following paragraphs I explore some of the major themes in the emigration of the Scandinavian peoples from their homeland to the United States; focusing on religious reasons, as well as economic, political and even American encouragement to travel to the United States.

          I began my initial research by solidifying my understanding of which nationalities constituted the Scandinavian peoples and found that it is a grouping of five different nationalities; Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Icelandic (Library of Congress).   While Scandinavian peoples had journeyed to the Americas throughout history, it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the United States saw a considerable influx of Scandinavian immigration.  According to the Oregon History Project, from 1820-1920 the Scandinavian population in the United States grew to over 2.1 million, with roughly 125,000 being documented in the pre-Civil War years.  The greatest increase in Scandinavian numbers, however, came from 1865 through the start of the First World War.  Of the 2.1 million Scandinavian peoples in the United States, greater than half of that total were documented as Swedish and roughly one-third were Norwegian (Binus and Donnely).  The numbers of those from Denmark, Finland and Iceland while fewer overall, were also less reliable as many came under various listed nationalities; as in the case of the Finnish peoples, the sovereignty of Finland was in flux over much of the country’s history and many of their people entered the United States documented as Swedish or Russian  (Library of Congress).  

There were various factors leading the various Scandinavian nationalities to journey to America, but a common thread was that of the search for religious freedom. During 1825, a time of intense religious strife for Norway, a group of six families traveled to America in a small vessel.  Many were shocked upon their arrival that the sloop had carried them all the way from Norway and they became known as the “Sloopers.” In the 1830s and 40s small groups of Swedish farmers also traveled to America in search of religious freedom.  The Danes, however, were the first mass influx of a new religion.  During 1850, a group of American missionaries traveled to Copenhagen, promoting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Of the several thousand converts to Mormonism, nearly half traveled to America.  Over 20,000 Danish Mormons would travel to the United States by the end of the nineteenth Century. Icelandic converts to Mormonism would follow their Danish counterparts soon after  (Library of Congress).  While many immigrated to America for religious reasons, others made the journey for more economic and political reasons.

By the year 1850, Sweden’s population had doubled from a mere hundred years prior, and the nation found itself in the middle of a population crisis and famine.  At that time the famine was so widespread that twenty-two in every thousand Swedes died as a result.  As Sweden’s emigration laws eased in the 1860s a mass exodus ensued.  From 1861-81 roughly 150,000 Swedish peoples came to America; 100,000 of which came in a five-year period (1868-73).  Also impacted heavily by famine, Icelanders traveled to America during the 1870s and since they were fewer in number many attached to the Swedish or Norwegian communities.  During the mid-nineteenth Century, Finland saw many of its peoples fleeing the anti-Finnish laws of its Russian government  (Library of Congress).  Many of the Finnish peoples fled to America to avoid the Finnish conscription laws, which would force enlistment in the Russian military  (Binus and Donnely).  In addition to the political and economic strife of the Scandinavian homelands, many also faced the tide of “American Fever,” which soon swept through their nations. 

Sweden, Norway and Finland each saw representatives and recruiters from American steamship lines, railroad companies and those advertising fresh farmland just waiting to be developed and ripe for the taking.  Successful emigrants from Norway would come home to tour the country, telling of their success in America, and encouraging others to come and help settle this wonderful land.  One Norwegian, Andreus Ueland, wrote of his experience after hearing the stories of some of the Norwegian emigrants, and how once infected with the “American Fever” he experienced, “…only brooding on how to get away to America. It was like a desperate case of homesickness reversed,”  (Library of Congress).  Those recruited from Finland, while fewer in number, were typically guided to specific territories for development. 

While I have merely scratched the surface of where I hope to go with this research, I have thus far discovered some of the diversity of the Scandinavian peoples.  Their various reasons for traveling to America is fascinating and I look forward to digging into the further influences of these communities as well as some of the struggles they faced as immigrants coming into this new country.  I also look forward to discovering new information on my family’s journey to America and how their experience compares to those that we have discussed in class.