In Search of a Norwegian-American Working Class / John R. Jenswold

nnoRiuEcinn-nmERicnn luoRKinc cmss John R. Jenswold THIS ARTICLE, here translated, annotated, and Aandsliv. The sojourner in American history in the slightly adapted for American readers, was commis 1980s has the same task as the European observer of sioned by the Norwegian magazine Samtiden. When American society in the 1880s—to cut through the pro first published in a 1984 issue on "The Dream of Amer motional noise to find some substance in the din. ica: Norway in America—America in Norway," it intro Like Hamsun, foreign visitors and native critics duced Norwegian readers to recent concepts in Ameri found in American culture of the restless 19th century a can social history. While such themes as social mobility penchant for selling, a commerce that was not limited and the American success ideology have long interested to the hawking of land and peddlers' goods. The com American historians, they had not been applied to the modities of human aspirations and dreams were added Norwegian immigrant experience. to the stock. Their advertisements were myths. To Drawing upon examples from Minnesota and the speak of a Norwegian-American working class is to East Coast, the article is a general survey of Norwegian challenge two historical myths. One concerns the popu participation in industrializing and urbanizing the lar conception of the Norwegian immigrant experi United States. The author hopes that the new interest ence. The other is the formidable American mjiih of in urban Scandinavian immigration—recently ex success. pressed on both sides of the Atlantic—will uncover the The popular image of Norwegian immigrants grew sources needed to illuminate the lives of these immi out of the circumstances surrounding the celebration in grants of an overlooked class and era. the 1920s of their past. To commemorate the centennial of the beginning of organized emigration from Norway, AMERICA in the last decades of the 19th century, Knut ethnic leaders called for a widespread program to pre Hamsun observed, was "a society in the making." In serve the group's past, "to assess that event accurately, the turmoil of transition from a land of serene farms to in all its bearings," as Judge Andreas Ueland of Minne a nation of industrial cities, the Norwegian author apolis demanded.2 found "the feverish rush and to-do that comes of people Desperation as well as commemorative nostalgia col on the move" in a culture in which "every day is ored the effort. These early patrons of ethnic history moving-in day for a newcomer."' All this activity cre envisioned nothing less than the end of Norwegian- ated a great deal of cultural noise, which Hamsun criti American life. The rate of immigration had dropped cized in his 1889 book, Fra det moderne Amerikas dramatically with the onset of World War I and failed * Hamsun, The Cultural Lije oj Modern America, trans. John R. Jenswold is Curator/Editor oj the University Art Mu Barbara G. Morgridge (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer seum, University oj Minnesota. The author oJ several articles sity Press, 1969), 5. on Scandinavian immigration, he is currently at work on a 2 Ueland, Recollections oJ an Immigrant (New York: study oj Norwegian immigrant lije, 1880-1930. in Brooklyn, Milton, Balch & Co., 1929), 193. Chicago, and Minneapolis. Summer 1986 63 to recover during the short depression of the early migrated to midwestern farms before America industri 1920s. Economic constraints were supplemented by alized. Once here, they fought the Civil War for the legislation with the passing of the immigration acts of Union and against slavery, organized politically, and in 1921 and 1924. Although intended mainly to stem the the process assimilated easily into American life. On tide of industrial immigrants from Southern and East the farms, according to this view, Norwegians achieved ern Europe, these laws marked the end of the "open a modest level of comfort and economic independence door" tradition. While no one could have envisioned upon which their children could build prosperity. the effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s and While other immigrants huddled in improverished World War II in further curtailing European immigra ghettos in the city, the Norwegians, it was believed, tion, the message seemed clear enough to the ethnic were fulfilling the American Dream of success quietly. leaders of 1925: The great migration was over, and they and their children were the sole custodians of Norwe TO SIMPLIFY the Norwegian experience in this man gian culture in America. ner is to overlook the dynamics of the social and eco There was also some doubt that the younger genera nomic forces that transformed rural immigrant Norwe tion would carry on the traditions. By 1925 the "Ameri gians of the mid-19th century into rural, urban, and can transition" was thought to be largely complete. suburban Americans of the mid-20th. A survey of the Scholars cited the abandonment of regional dialects, full scope of the migration reveals how closely Norwe the increased use of English in worship and conversa gians resembled other industrial immigrants.^ Most tion, and a declining interest in ethnic institutions Norwegians entered the United States during the indus among the young as indexes of Americanization. "The trial era: three times as many of them emigrated to societies, immigrant journals, and other Norwegian- America in the 60 years between 1880 and 1940 than American institutions appeared hopelessly outdated had left Norway in the previous six more-celebrated and obsolete to a majority of the children of the immi decades of migration. The immigrants of this later era grants," historian Odd S. Lovoll noted.3 Members of were different from those of the earlier period of family the older generation, who believed that their Norwe- emigration from Norway. Most were men—60 percent gianness had helped give them a personality distinct of the 308,270 newcomers who arrived between 1880 from the homogeneity of America, looked on in alarm. and 1915. Two-thirds of these men were between the There was a sense of impending loss, that the rich heri ages of 15 and 30, and a large majority of immigrants tage of the group would be devoured by the new com of both sexes were unmarried. (Many married men, mercial culture represented by assembly lines and de who emigrated alone, planned to bring their wives and partment stores, radio and motion pictures. children over to the new country after a couple of years The patricians responded with a flurry of historical of earning and saving.) Like other immigrants of the activities then unmatched among America's ethnic period, not all Norwegian newcomers had an ironclad groups. In 1925 a group of scholars, businessmen, and commitment to endure all hardships in America; hard clergy founded the Norwegian-American Historical As times sent large numbers of them home. It has been es sociation. Under its aegis immigrant papers were col timated that as many as a quarter gave up on the Amer lected, translated, and published. Scholarship ap ican Dream and returned to the port cities of Mother peared in books by such historians as Theodore C. Norway. 6 Blegen and Knut Gjerset and a journal, Norwegian- Most Norwegian immigrants were a part of the great American Studies and Records, was launched. In suc migration of peoples from all parts of Europe to indus ceeding decades, a wealth of letters, reminiscences, trializing America. While overshadowed in raw num family histories, and church records have been col bers by those coming from Eastern and Southern Eu lected and published by the association, the state his rope, the flow of workers from Western and Northern torical societies of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and inde pendent scholars.** 3 Lovoll, A Folk Epic: The Bygdelag in America (Boston: The picture of Norwegians that has emerged from 60 Twayne Publishers, 1975), 144, 174-175. years of history writing has been one of hearty, hard * Odd S. Lovoll and Kenneth O. Bjork, The Norwegian- American Historical Association, 1925-1975 (Northfield: The working, and pious farmers. Keeping with the temper Association, 1975). ament of the times, writers have celebrated the persist ^ Arnfinn Engen, ed., Utvandringa: det store oppbrotet ence of sturdy pioneers and the successful rise of great (Oslo: Samlaget, 1978), 36; Norway, Departementet for So- men to positions of power and prominence in the new ciale Saker (Services), Utvandringsstatistikk (Kristiania, world. In contrast to the non-Protestant "new immi 1921); Ingrid G. Semmingsen, "Norwegian Emigration to America During the Nineteenth Century," Norwegian- grants" from Southern and Eastern Europe, Norwe American Studies and Records 11 (1940): 78-80. gians were not blamed for the complex problems of the ^' Norway, Statistik Sentralbyra (Central Bureau of Statis urban and industrial society. They were said to have tics), Ekteskap, J4delser, og vandring (Oslo, 1975), 218. 64 Minnesota History Europe did not merely continue, but increased. And regions: Chicago for the Great Lakes states, Minneapo for many the lure was the new America of industrial lis for the Upper Midwest and the Great Plains, and Se cities. While many newcomers sought out their country attle for the transplanted midwesterners in the Pacific cousins at first, they turned increasingly to urban and Northwest. After the turn of the century, greater num industrial occupations afer 1880. The number of Nor bers of Norwegians made it no farther into the new wegian and Swedish men engaged in manufacturing land than New York City. There they found residence tripled in the 1880s, and similar dramatic increases and work among their compatriots in Brooklyn, the were reported in such untraditionally Norwegian im emerging center of Norwegian culture on the Atlantic migrant occupations as the building trades and iron coast.*" and steel production.

Load more