Kristian Hvidt’s 1971 thesis represented the statistical paradigm of Scan
dinavian emigration of that period. It is therefore not surprising that the author was interested only in the number and not the content of emigrant letters.27 Hvidt takes the great increase in the number of letters from the United States to Denmark in the years from 1875 to 1914 as an indication of an increased “pull” on the Danish population, as more and more Danes settled on the other side of the Atlantic and wrote of their blissful lives in America to family and friends back home. He thereby establishes that one of the purposes of these letters was to tempt others to emigrate to America.
The following statistics are based on Danish postal records from 1875 to 1914:28
Average number of letters per year from America to Denmark
Of course, not all of these letters were written by Danish emigrants (busi
ness letters, for example, are also included). In spite of this, there is no doubt that these statistics indicate that an enormous number of emigrant letters were written. Such statistics serve to set the small number of exist
ing, available letters in relief. It should be noted that, of course, many emigrants wrote no letters at all.
The fact of greatest significance is not, however, the overwhelming number of letters, but the importance of personal contact across the Atlan
tic. The emigrant letters explain better than anything else the motives and goals of emigration. Emigration was a mass movement of individuals. The letters written as the migration took place have a central position in the interplay between the individual and the general. Measurable socio
economic factors alone cannot explain the concentration of emigration with
in certain social groups, within certain years and within geographically clearly defined areas, both in the country left behind and in the country of destination. The explanation of the distribution of emigration must be found in a correlation of the socio-economic factors and the influence of personal contact through letters.
Notes
1. The current article is based on the author’s study of Danish emigrant letters. An overview of the letters used is given in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, Et Nyt Liv (A New Life). Copenhagen, 1985, pp. 176-179.
2. Niels Peter Stilling, “Det private brevs betydning i udvandringshistorien” (The import
ance of the private letter in emigration history), Emigranten, no. 1, 1985, pp. 27-28.
3. Peter Riismøller, Rebild. Motiver og Mål for Udvandring og Hjemfærd (Rebild. Motives and Goals for Emigration and Homecoming), Copenhagen, 1952, p. 33.
4. Kristian Hvidt, Flugten til Amerika (Flight to America), Århus, Denmark, 1971, and Københavns Politis Udvandringssager: Registre over udvandrede, direkte og indirekte 1868- 1940 (Copenhagen Police Emigration Files: Records of Those Who Emigrated, Directly and Indirectly 1868-1940), Landsarkivet for Sjælland (The Provincial Archives of Zea
land), Copenhagen.
5. Hans Christian Johansen, “Udvandring” (Emigration), Dansk Kulturhistorisk Opslags
værk (Reference Book of Danish Cultural History), vol. II, Copenhagen, 1991, pp. 923- 924.
6. Hans Normann and Harald Runblom, Translatlantic Connections, Oslo, 1987, appears to be a first Swedish step in the direction of a new approach to emigration history.
7. Brev fra Amerika (Letter from America), M. Hjort Hansen, et al. eds., Copenhagen, 1981.
8. Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit.
9. Karl Larsen, De, Der Tog Hjemmefra (Those Who Left Home), vols. I-IV, Copenhagen, 1912-1914.
10. Johannes V. Jensen, a review published in the magazine, Riget, 1912.
11. Jeppe Aakjær, a review published in the newspaper, Politiken, Copenhagen, 1913. See also Karl Larsen, op.cit., vol. IV, 1914.
12. The most important travel books from America written by Danes are: Axel Felix (=
H.P. Hansen), Langt fra Danmark. Skizzer og Scener fra De Forenende Stater i Nordame
rika (Far from Denmark. Sketches and Scenes from the United States in North America) I-III, Copenhagen 1852-1855; Vilhelm Topsøe, Fra Amerika (From America), Copenhagen, 1897; Hans Andreasen, Amerika, Sect fra et Landbostandpunkt (America, Seen from a Farmer’s Viewpoint), Copenhagen, 1884. Jacob Riis’ books are, likewise, part of this tradition, as is Amerikanske Billeder {American Pictures), Copenhagen, 1977, by the modern America observer, Jacob Holt.
13. Important early collections of letters include H.F. Feilberg, Hjemmeliv på Prærien (Homelife on the Prairie), Copenhagen, 1927, and Torben Lange’s letters in the book, Fra Roskildefjord til Mississippi (From Roskilde Fjord to the Mississippi), Copenhagen, 1945. Over the past ten years a number of collections of emigrant letters have been published. Benedicte Mahler’s Cathrine og Valdemar, et Udvandrerpars Skæbne Skildret Gennem Breve (Cathrine and Valdemar, the Fate of an Emigrant Couple Described in Letters), Copenhagen, 1975, deserves special mention.
14. See, for example, Thomas C. Blegen, Land of Their Choice. The Immigrants Write Home, Minneapolis, 1955, and Holger Munchaus Petersen, Vi Tredie-Klasses Udvandrere (We Third-Class Emigrants), Esbjerg, 1978. These two works are comprised of letters previ
ously published in newspapers; the main purpose of these letters was either to warn fellow countrymen against emigration or the opposite, to provide propaganda in favor of emigration. The attitude generally reflects the attitude toward emigration of the news
paper in question, in some instances to such a degree that one suspects the “emigrant letter” may be a piece of editorial work. Cf. also Frederic Hale, Danes in North America, Seattle 1984, and a review by N.P. Stilling in Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 86, 1986, pp.210- 211. Eighty-nine of the 125 “letters” reproduced in Hale’s book were letters to the editor which had appeared in Danish newspapers and magazines.
15. The psychological aspects of emigration have been dealt with primarily in German research, most significantly in Gert Raeithel, “Go West,” Ein psychohistorischer Versuch uber die Amerikaner. Frankfurt a.M., 1981. Cf. also Kai Detlev Sievers, ed., Diedeutsche und skandinavische Amerika-auswanderung im 19. und 10. Jahrhundert, Neumunster, 1981.
16. Cf. Charlotte Erikson. Invisible Immigrants, London, 1972, pp. 5-7.
17. Andreas Frederiksen’s letters are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit. The original letters are privately owned.
18. For information about Rasmus Sørensen and his books about America see, for example, Erik Helmer Pedersen, Drømmen om Amerika (The Dream of America), Copenhagen, 1985, pp. 62-63 and Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit., p. 21.
19. Government land. According to the so-called Preemption Act of 1841 it was possible to preempt up to 160 acres of uncultivated, unoccupied land for $1.25 per acre. 160 acres was the magic number in almost all American land legislation.
20. The letters of Peter Nielsen (and his brother Wilhelm) are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit., The original letters are in Køge Byhistoriske Arkiv, Køge, Denmark.
21. The letters of Lars Pedersen (and his brother Hans) are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit. The original letters are in Stevns Lokalhistoriske Arkiv, St. Heddinge, Denmark.
22. Maren Lorensen’s letters are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit. The original letters are the property of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln.
23. Hans Madsen’s (Kokjes) letters are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit.The original letters are privately owned.
24. Hans Jacobsen’s letters are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit. The original letters are privately owned.
25. Hans Jørgensen’s letters are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stilling, op.cit. The original letters are privately owned.
26. Frederik Andersen’s letters are published in Anne Lisbeth Olsen and Niels Peter Stil
ling, op.cit. The original letters are in Byhistorisk Arkiv for Søllerød kommune. See also N.P. Stilling. “Søllerød in world history or a case-study on the emigration from Søllerød Parish, North Zealand, c. 1860-1900,” In: S.E. Jørgensen, L. Scheving and N.P.
Stilling, eds., From Scandinavia to America, Odense, Denmark, 1987, p. 81 ff.
27. Kristian Hvidt, op.cit., pp. 340-343.
28. Kristian Hvidt, op.cit., p. 343.