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Chapter 7 The Emigration Process A. The Promised Land An agricultural crisis developed in mid 19th century. Large families and generations of divided inheritances led to the fragmenting of farms into tiny land holdings. Poor soil was laid under the plow, and the cottages of tenant farmers and landless laborers multiplied. The population of some parishes doubled three times over. Some advanced landholders tried to reorganize agriculture through the state-supported enclosure movement, farm schools and refined methods of farming, but it was difficult to reform the thousand-year-old "Mother economy" on a wider scale. The liberals were disappointed, confronted as they were with stubborn ignorance and bureaucratic conservatism. Many of them like "the father of Swedish emigration", Gustav Unonius saw no future in Sweden and left for America. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Sweden was a land of poverty, want and social frustration. Swedish emigration primarily had the same causes as the contemporary population surge from Northern and Western Europe: population pressure, economic and - above all - agricultural hardships, a profound social crisis, widespread political and religious discontent. The famous Swedish bishop and poet Esaias Tegne'r explained the population pressure in three words: "peace, vaccination and potatoes." He thereby referred to the fact that Sweden had not been in war since the fatal Russian war of 1809 and the successful Danish one of 1814. Smallpox vaccination had reduced the infant mortality from 21% in 1750 to 15% in 1850. Potatoes became a nutritious supplement to the poor man's bread. The combined affects of such benefits resulted in a growth in population, which in turn produced other problems for society. The number of Swedes doubled between 1750 and 1850 and the growth continued. In a country with few industries and cities, the burden had to be carried by the primitive agricultural society. Industry and communications were less developed in Sweden than in most other West European countries. The government was still mainly unaware of the dormant riches of the country's forests, mountains and rivers. But the industrial epoch was dawning and the migrations within Sweden from farm to town were symptoms of a new era. The second half of the nineteenth century experienced an increasing series of technical inventions and improvements, which quickly transformed small-scale workshops into modern industries, or covered the country with a network of railroads. New industrial centers were created around the railroads and the mouths of the rivers, and the old cities developed faster than ever before. Compulsory elementary school, a modern welfare program and liberal economic reforms pointed toward a way out of poverty and distress. Day was breaking, although the people on the overcrowded farms, the crafters or the enormous agricultural proletariat did not yet feel it. It is true that the industrial era seemed to promise a new future for most of them, but the frames around the splendid expectations proved to be cut too short. For instance, it was easy to buy a ticket to Stockholm, but where does one find housing and a job in a city suddenly over-crowded with job-hungry unskilled laborers? The labor market of the small, backward country was too limited. Many young people were therefore drawn down into the social swamp of Stockholm, ending up as beggars or prostitutes. Others read the advertisements about America. Beyond the Ocean a new chance awaited those who could save up or borrow some money, or get a prepaid ticket from a relative whom was already lucky enough to live in "the Promised Land." Therefore, the urbanization process only temporarily slowed down the emigration. Approximately one fourth of the Swedish emigrants in 1850-1920 came from cities. It is difficult to imagine overseas migration without common people being able to read and write. Thanks to the Lutheran Church the rate of illiteracy had always been relatively low in Sweden. The Elementary School Act of 1842 almost erased illiteracy among the younger generation, the one that was to read about America in newspapers, popular books or pamphlets. Like the first letters sent home by the pioneers in America, this literature was circulated from cottage to cottage. The America-letter brought strange news, which seemed to prove that success lay before everyone who emigrated. From the end of the 1860s, a network of emigrant agents offered their services to people who had been convinced of the Promised Land. At the end of the 1860s, the last of a series of severe hunger catastrophes struck Sweden. The agriculture, which was still only partially modernized, had been struggling with difficult times. Now came a series of crop failures. 1867 thus became "the wet year" of rotting grain, 1868 became the "dry year" of burned fields, and 1869 became "the severe year" of epidemics and begging children. Sixty thousand people left Sweden during these three "starvation years". B. The Exit Permits Our research of the parish records found all the exit permit information for the family as they moved within Sweden and/or to the United States. The most significant ones are listed below. From Tjureda parish (Nykulla-Sodergard): September 22, 1868, to N. America: Jonas Peter Petersson (Figure 1.) May 8, 1871, to N. America: Gustaf Petersson (Figure 2.) September 18, 1879, to Hornaryd parish: Carl Magnus Petersson October 22, 1881, to Vaxjo parish: Johan Petersson and family April 14, 1887, to N. America: August Petersson (Figure 3.) February 7, 1889, to Tjureda: Anna Katrina Petersdotter and husband From Hornaryd parish (Hornaryd-Norregard): March 2, 1890, to N. America: Carl Magnus Petersson September 3, 1894, to N. America: Carl Magnus Petersson and family From Vaxjo parish (Vaxjo-Magnus Smek 4) October 18, 1895, to Tjureda parish (Nykulla): Johan Petersson and family 
Figure 1 
Figure 2 
Figure 3 When John received his exit permit to North America on September 21,1868, Sven Gustaf Johansson (b.1842) from Nykulla-Kronogård was issued his on the same date and they are listed together in the register. It is possible that he was a cousin who may have traveled with him. He probably traveled from Nykulla to Vaxjo by horse-drawn carriage, and then to Goteborg on a new railroad that had been built in the previous few years. When Gustaf received his exit permit to North America on May 8, 1871, Johannes Johansson (b.1849) from Nykulla-Kronogård was issued his on the same date and they are listed together in the register. It is possible that he was a cousin who may have traveled with him. As we trace the emigration from Sweden of the four Petersson brothers, several factors are important. Their father, grandfather, and great grandfather were farmers. Yet the brothers acquired good carpentry skills, although we don't have any information on whether Gustaf had the same talent. And, with the exception of Carl's many trips to Hornaryd (which he might have done as a carpenter), they did this without leaving their home and travelling outside their parish. It is quit possible that a master carpenter (snickare) was a crofter who rented land on their farm (or adjacent farms) and they became his apprentices. The 1890 census listed such a person living on the farm with Johannes. John is said to have started at age 12, and he was not quite 20 when he left for America. He led the way to the U.S. with a trunk full of tools and established himself in the new land. He changed his name from Petersson to Newquist. His brothers followed that lead when they arrived years later. And the three brothers worked together for a period of time as carpenters in the United States. Those carpentry skills learned in Nykulla would serve them well as successful businessmen in Chicago for many years. These brothers became part of the mass emigration which, with short intervals, was to continue up to World War I. During the era of mass emigration 1868-1914, more than a million Swedes emigrated, mostly to the U.S. Compare this to Sweden's population at the time: 5.5 million. Roughly one fifth of all Swedes had their homes in America right before World War I! The emigration resumed after the war, but on a more modest scale. It ceased completely during the depression at the end of the 1920s. The Swedes still rank number seven among the European immigrant groups. In proportion to the population of their home countries, only the British Isles and Norway surpassed Sweden in the number of immigrants.
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