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SLOVAK IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES IN LIGHT OF AMERICAN, CZECH, AND SLOVAK HISTORY By Gregory C. Ference Although one can generalize about began trying to establish a homogenous population grew about sixteen percent immigration and immigrant groups in national state. Herein lies a major to 3 million,3 making the Slovaks by the United States, whether they are difference between the Czechs and 1910 an estimated one-fifth of all Czech and Slovak or Croat and Slov­ Slovaks. The majority of the Czechs subjects of the Kingdom of Hungary.4 ene, each group has had a distinct immigrated to the United States from This numerical increase of the over­ experience. On the surface, Czech and the Austrian half of Austria-Hungary to whelmingly agrarian Slovak people Slovak immigration may appear to be better their economic lot or to escape eventually led to their subdividing their quite similar but underneath they are particular crises like the crop failures of peasant landholdings into smaller plots not. This points to a serious, ongoing the 1870s or the agricultural depression that could no longer support even problem in Czechoslovak studies where beginning in the 1880s. Others left subsistence farming. The territory of scholars tend to know one group, either Bohemia and Moravia to acquire Slovakia, largely mountainous and ill­ the Czech or the Slovak, better than the greater political freedom in response to suited for agriculture, further exacer­ other', and thereby make generalizations Habsburg suppression of the 1848-49 bated the situation. Although serfdom that do not accurately reflect the expe­ revolutions, Habsburg anti-socialist was abolished in 1848 and a land re­ riences of either or of the whole pic­ legislation of the 1880s, or periodic form instituted, so that theoretically ture. This article attempts to clear up conflicts with the Bohemian Germans. anyone could purchase property, large some of the misconceptions about Unlike a majority of Slovaks, most of estates (latifundia) remained. These Slovak immigration in relation to that these Czechs came to the United States great estates, protected in part by entail of the Czechs, with emphasis on the with the intention of settling here and pri~ogeniture, were seldom broken pre-1914 era. permanently. down into smaller plots that were Given the general repression of the As for Slovak emigration, overpopu­ affordable to the peasantry. The conse­ Slovaks and other non-Magyar minori­ lation was a major cause. After the quent general overpricing of land ties in the Lands of St. Stephen or the Turkish threat to the Habsburg Monar­ divided the peasants into two catego­ Kingdom of Hungary, it is easy to chy diminished in the late seventeenth ries: "dwarf plot" landholders and the deduce that these minorities would century and relative calm was restored landless.5 search for a way to escape oppression, in this part of central Europe, the esti­ Along with the landless peasants, and that is why they emigrated. But, mated number of Slovaks in Hungary "dwarf plot" landholders became sea­ for the most part, nothing can be fur­ rose considerably, from 700,000 in sonal farm laborers on the large estates ther from the truth. Especially from 1720 to 2 million by 1780. 1 The twelve to support their families . The pay was 1848 to 1918, other circumstances­ Slovak-dominated counties (Bratislava, low and the work lasted, at best, five to particularly overpopulation, a lack of Gemer, Hontian, Liptov, Nitra, Orava, six months. With the advent of farm farmland, unemployment, and pov­ Saris, Spis, Tekov, Trencfn, TurCian, mechanization in Hungary, these jobs erty--overshadowed the Magyarization and Zvolen) amounted to approxi­ were threatened, since one reaper could policies of the Hungarian government. mately one-third of the total inhabitants do the work of fifteen men.6 These determinants originated many of Hungary in 1720; but this percentage Even the cottage industries in Slo­ years before the Magyars in 1867 dropped to about one-fourth by 1787, vakia suffered a fatal blow with the due to the even more rapid population beginnings of industrialization in the growth in other parts of that kingdom. 2 Habsburg Monarchy. Starting in the Dr. Gregory C. Ference is professor of By 1850 the number of Slovaks had late 1860s government contracts went history at Salisbury State University. Salisbury. Maryland. increased to around 2.5 million. Dur­ to large factories, primarily in the ing the next sixty years, the Slovak Austrian half of the empire, causing 130 Ference· Slovak Immigration to the U.S. widespread unemployment and further could be found in various sections of stricken area further enticed others to aggravating the problem.7 Conse­ the United States. The beginnings of emigrate. Moreover many Slovaks quently, Slovaks sought employment in the mass migration started around earned enough money after four to five growing industrial cities, such as 1880, with the immigrants coming years to return home as boMci (rich Budapest or Vienna. By 1910 the primarily from eastern Slovakia, where men), thereby captivating the Old number of Slovak laborers had risen to overpopulation and unemployment Country Slovaks with the wealth to be 20.3 percent in industry and dropped to were most acute. 10 Slovaks who immi­ made in'the United States. Nonethe­ 61.8 percent in farming.s grated did so without any intention to less, the pull of America only suc­ The introduction of mechanized settle in the United States permanently. ceeded in starting mass emigration in farming, the destruction of cottage They came with the purpose of earning areas where the local populace had a industry, and general overcrowding in money as fast as possible and then successful past in this migration rural and urban areas produced a sur­ returning to the Old Country to buy process. 15 plus population that could not be ab­ land with their hard earned dollars. I I Many of these boMb decided to re­ sorbed by the relatively late-starting Between 1873 and 1883 Slovaks emigrate, some makirtg the trip several industrialization of the Habsburg Mon­ contemplating the move to America times before deciding to settle perma­ archy, especially its Hungarian half. were helped by Daniel Sustek (1846­ nently in America because of the eco­ Bad harvests in the 1870s and the 1873 1927). This journeyman carpenter nomic benefits. Approximately sixty depression further aggravated the wrote over this ten-year period about percent of all Slovaks who had emi­ situation. Slovaks had no recourse but his experiences in the United States in grated eventually returned prior to to look outside the monarchy for a the Slovak monthly Obzor (Horizon), World War 1. 16 Young single men, at livelihood and increasingly turned for published in Skalica in western Slo­ the height of their physical strength, work to the United States, where a vakia. In this journal, Sustek, besides arrived first. In the 1880s women technologically advanced and rapidly telling about the difficulties of living in started to come to the United States to growing industrialization easily ab­ a strange country with its different life­ satisfy the need for Slovak spouses. sorbed them.9 They started to come in styles, gave much needed information A married man usually traveled alone, large numbers in the 1880s, unlike the and advice on traveling to America, and after earning enough money, he Czechs who had a good twenty years locating employment, anticipating either returned to the Old Country to head start, and became part, along with wage and salary ranges, and engaging bring his fa{l1ily to America, or sent the Czechs, of the "new" immigration in business or personal relations with funds to family members to purchase or those people entering America from non-Slovaks. 12 rail and steamship tickets to America. 17 eastern and southeastern Europe. This Complementing Sustek's advice, The l a r~ely agrarian, uneducated, Slovak immigration to America acted American agents of industrial and and nationally unaware Slovaks settled as a safety valve for the Slovaks as well mining companies seeking employees mainly in the Mid-Atlantic and Great as for the Hungarian authorities. A began to work in Slovakia and pre­ Lakes regions, particularly in western potentially dangerous situation was sented very positive pictures of life in Pennsylvania, taking low skilled jobs in avoided as large numbers of economi­ the United States. Representatives of heavy industry, such as coal mines and cally disaffected persons left the Lands great steamship lines later joined indus­ steel mills. IS As compared to Hungary, of St. Stephen. trial agents in encouraging people to in America they had year-round em­ The first known Slovak to travel to emigrate so that their companies could ployment with wages five to six times America was Andrej Jelik, who arrived profit by large scale migration. 13 higher. A person working in heavy approximately one hundred years Yet the greatest pull for Slovak industry could expect to earn in one before the mass immigration began. In emigration came from the letters of day what he would have received in 1840 a family of Slovak tinkers, the relatives and friends in America de­ one week in the Old Country at a sea­ Komada, established the first Slovak scribing the benefits of life there as sonal job.19 Although sixty-eight business, dealing with wire and wire compared to Hungary. These letters percent of the immigrants between products, in Philadelphia. By the also often contained large sums of 1899 and 1913 had agricultural back­ 1850s Slovaks immigrated more fre­ money,14 to pay debts, purchase addi­ grounds, almost ninety percent received quently, yet these immigrants usually tional property and farm equipment, employment in i.ndustry.20 In 1909 were isolated cases.

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