The first wave of emigration started in 1825

The first wave of emigration started in 1825, when the boat “Restauration” bring the first 52 emigrants over the Atlantic from Stavanger. There is no doubt that the first emigrants left because of conflicts with the authorities, mostly religious conflicts. Emigration as a form of protest also happened, because of taxes, the rules for inheritance and other things that made people’s lives harder, according to Sverre Mørkhagen, the author of three books on the Norwegian emigration to the USA

Did not know of the USA

Many people ask why no one had gone there before. There is a simple explanation for this.

-They did not know about the USA. It was not an alternative. The country became a part of people’s collective consciousness because of the Napoleonic Wars, when 5000 Norwegian prisoners were put in English prisons. When they came back to Norway they had learned a bit of English and had been told stories of the US, according to Mørkhagen.

The first couple of years in a new country were often though, so the small goods you could get your hands on were good to have. here you can see emigrants eating a free meal on Ellis Island. (Photo: Edwin Levick/ New York Public Library)

Snakes and bandits or a new and better life?

There was a lot of apprehension connected to how the 52 people travelling with the “Restauration” would fare. Rumours were going around about what they would encounter. Bandits. Dangerous snakes. There were enough of dangerous things that could happen. Even the trip across the ocean was dangerous.

It would come to show that the people who left did not do very well. Starvation and misery caused them to give up starting the colony they wanted to start up.

Family immigration from 1836

The next immigrants therefore did not leave until 1836. In the meantime, a lot of changes happened in the USA. The first immigrants find good and fertile lands on the prairie further into the Midwest, and letters speaking positively of the new country starts arriving to Norway. When Knut Slogvik, who was one of the people in the the first colony, goes back to Norway and confirms everything that had been written, the result is that they have to use two boats when the next group of immigrants leave for the US in 1836. After that, more and more people started leaving.

-The emigration that now started to take shape was more similar to family emigration. Entire families leaves. Even people that would normally inherit property started to leave, in consideration for the other children in the family that did not normally have the right to inherit property. The parents wanted to ensure the future of all the children. There are still some protest emigration, but people are now also leaving out of necessity. Considering all the rumours and positive stories of the American society, emigration is viewed as a better alternative to staying in Norway. Many families send the oldest boy as well, so that he can establish himself first and then bring the rest of the family over, says Mørkhagen. He adds that the eastern part of Norway (Østlandet) and parts of the western part of Norway (Vestlandet) early sent emigrants to the US.

Among the largest emigration areas early on were Voss and Sogn in the western part of Norway, Telemark, Hallingdal and the areas north of Drammen in the eastern part of Norway.

Photo: Edwin Levick/ New York Public Library

Three waves of emigration

One can crudely split the mass emigration into three different time periods. The first one happens in the 1860’s. At this point in time there were terrible conditions in Norway, with failing crops year after year. In addition to this, the American civil war temporarily stopped the migration, something that made the pressure start to build in the Norwegian population. When the war ends in 1865, it explodes.

The next wave, in the 1880’s, is closely related to the industrialisation in Kristiania (Oslo). This leads to many young people leaving for the city to find work, but the cities filled up over time, and there were no more jobs. The industry did not grow as fast anymore. One had to travel further to create a future for themselves, and therefore, many emigrants at this point of time were young people.

The last time period , from the end of the 1890’s and to the First World War, is a mix of old and new labour emigration -more and more people also travel to get an opportunity to use their education. Many newly educated students from Norwegian educational institutions travel to the USA, among others, because of a lack of jobs in Norway. A so called “mind-escape”.

1000 spesidaler per ticket

To travel cost a lot of money. A ticket could easily cost a yearly wage. To travel was only accessible to the most resourceful in the beginning, while those less resourceful had to stay behind. For some people it did not take a lot to leave everything behind and travel across the ocean, others needed a bit more convincing before they wanted to leave. Many people were convinced by agents from the shipping companies, they travelled into the smaller villages further into the country to sell the USA to the people as a good future and to draw up contracts with those that allowed themselves to be won over.

Discord between priests and emigrants

Only towards the end of the 1860’s the police were given the responsibility for giving out passports and registration of people leaving. Earlier, the priests were the ones recording people leaving in the church records. They had the role of the law for many years. However, most priests were very opposed to the emigration to the USA. They felt that the emigrants were trying to get away from the duty of the people to build up the country, and therefore many people tried to avoid the priest when they left the country.

This is a picture of a mother and child undergoing a medical assessment on Ellis Island. (Photo: Edwin Levick/ New York Public Library)

Different ports of departure

In the early emigration people travelled by sea. At this point in time, there were many different ports of departure, and you could travel directly to the USA. Skien is an important port of departure to begin with, because the emigration started early in Telemark. Stavanger of course. And Bergen. When the steamboats arrived at the scene, Kristiania (Oslo) became the country’s most important port of departure.

The detour to the USA from 1849

Which ports of arrival have been used, have also changed through the years. This also affects which archives you should look into when looking for an emigrant.

-In the very beginning you travelled to New York. In 1849 the British act of navigation was repealed, which makes it legal for foreign shipping companies to carry passengers and goods between British ports. The shipping captains therefore see an opportunity to carry goods from Canada on the way back, which they can distribute in England. Therefore people started going to Quebec instead, to bring timber back. This is done until 1870-1875, when the sailing ships quit bringing passengers. This is the point when they started bringing people to New York again. Foreign, especially English steamship companies won the competition of passengers travels over the Atlantic, and most of them sailed to New York. For Norwegian emigrants, the most important contestant of these companies were the Danish shipping company TingvallaLinien/DFDS, which also sailed to New York.

The accessibility of the archives varies

Many people automatically think of Ellis Island when they hear the worlds New York and immigration. However, Ellis Island was opened around 1900. From the 1850’s and up until this, Castle Garden near Battery Park on Manhattan is the receiving station in New York. Over 15 million passengers arrived there until it was closed down around 1900.

-There are archives from Castle Garden, but it gets a bit complicated. This is because when Ellis Island was built up, it was declared a national monument and it was completely financed by the authorities. They also paid for the digitalisation of the archive materials. Castle Garden was never declared a national monument, and was instead taken over by a private foundation that quickly ran out of money. They have been able to digitalise many of their archives, but three countries are left. Norway is one of them. Therefore, I have been trying to get the Norwegian government to pay for the documents regarding Norwegian immigrants, like Germany have done earlier. Finding people that arrived in Quebec is even harder. They were pretty relaxed regarding record keeping the first decade, because they knew that the people that arrived were only passing through to the USA, says Mørkhagen.

The arrival hall on Ellis Island could be pretty full. These people are sitting in th registration room, and they have passed the mental assessment. (Photo: Edwin Levick/ New York Public Library)

Many people were ripped off when they stepped ashore

No matter where you arrived, you were generally met by the same thing. Helpers that offered their services, like getting them train tickets for the travel onwards or a place to live. Some were less serious than others. There were many stories of those that lost all they owned at the docks. If that did not become their fate, they moved onwards. Mostly to the prairie. Most emigrants already knew someone in the USA. They could get help and support from them, but the life was still a though one. There were few social goods waiting for them. But there was one.

-The American government started setting up military posts over the entire country to get control when they bought large parts of the USA from France in 1803. However, they were expensive, and it was also difficult to protect themselves against native Americans. The get control over the country, the government understood that they had to get people to live in the areas. They welcomed immigration and offered people cheap lands. A new law was enacted in 1861, the Homestead act, which allows the people arriving to get land close to free. Every settler is allotted 640 acres of land. In comparison, an average farm in Norway had around 100 acres of land, the biggest had between 200 and 300 acres. The people arriving were mostly poor, so they knew how to consider the size of what they were given, says Mørkhagen.

For the emigrants, being able to go to someone they knew was good for both those that had recently arrived and for those that had been in the country for a while. Most people also knows that the Norwegian-Americans in the beginning lived almost on top of each other. However, Mørkhagen believes that was natural considering the circumstances.

-When you arrive to a new culture and a new country, you become unsure and that affects your sense of identity. You want to ask yourself who you are. If you mix with others you will have even less left of your cultural identity, and therefore it is so important that you have some of your own around you. We want to take care of what is most important for our view of ourselves and our values, he says.