In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

π 1 C H A P T E R 1 Finnish Immigration and Settlement in a Hancock, Michigan, Neighborhood Finnish immigrant socialist-unionists found life in Michigan’s Copper Country much like the existence they had left in Finland, but laced with expensive machinery, sometimes pitiful working conditions, and a distinct out-group status. In this chapter, we will examine an author-defined historic neighborhood in Hancock, Michigan, circa 1910. In doing so, we will establish Finnish immigrants in their historic context concerning their unique temporal and spatial framework—affording a “snapshot in time” quality that establishes the period social and cultural demographics of likely people Finnish immigrant socialist-unionists sought to convert into class-conscious workers in the Copper Country between 1904 and 1914. Emigration from Finland Between the late 1880s and the early 1900s, the cultural control of czarist Russia, conscription into the Russian army, the influence of Finland’s upper class, and the Finnish national church created a paternalistic hierarchy that 2 π chapter one many Finnish proletarians despised. In addition to social tribulations, Finland was also facing periodic agricultural famines that forced many into a search for more fertile environs. In the mind of many Finns, emigration to America was an answer to socioeconomic problems in Finland. The largest numbers of Finnish emigrants came from Finland’s western and northern provinces. These emigrants from the west and north were largely farmers, cottagers, and tenant croppers who were poor, disenfranchised, but semiliterate country people. A lesser segment of Finnish emigrants came from Finland’s southern urban centers. These emigrants were tradesmen, factory workers, and intellectuals who were wageworkers. Many of these southern wageworkers were ideologically at odds with the autocratic, imperialist rule of the Russian czar, who controlled Finland as a grand duchy of the Russian Empire until 1917.1 The common perception in Finnish American labor history is that many leaders, as well as rank-and-filers, of the early Finnish American labor-political movement came from southern, urban-industrialized areas of Finland in 1905 or thereafter. This year, 1905, is significant because it featured an event that was The Upper Great Lakes Region. Map showing Hancock in relation to other urban areas. (United States Geological Survey, 1915.) Finns in a Hancock Neighborhood π 3 the climax of a period of social upheaval in Finland. The 1905 General Strike in Finland and the Viapori (Sveaborg) Rebellion, which occurred the following year, cast a long shadow in radicalizing segments of southern Finland’s population. The General Strike of 1905, a weeklong affair, saw Social Democrats in Tampere issue a “Red Declaration,” while Red Guards in Helsinki attempted to shut down Stockmann’s, one of Finland’s largest department stores. The Viapori Rebellion, in 1906, saw proletarian Russian soldiers (including ethnic Finns in the Russian Army) and the Finnish Red Guard attempt to overthrow the Russian czarist government at Sveaborg Castle. This attempt at revolution failed, but set an ideological model for proletarian-minded, southern Finnish citizens.2 While much of the revolutionary sentiment seemed to be coming from the south of Finland, Elis Sulkanen’s Amerikan Suomalaisen Työväenliikkeen Historia indicates that leaders of the Finnish immigrant socialist-unionist movement in America came more from the largely agricultural, nonindustrialized western, northern, and central provinces than from the southern, urban centers. From biographies in Sulkanen’s work, of the ninety-one leaders (with birthplaces I was able to identify in Finland) in the Finnish American socialist-unionist movement, fifty-one, or 56 percent, of the leaders came from places in the western, northern, and central regions of Finland. Of this hinterland, thirty-four came from the western and northern provinces of Vaasa and Oulu. Seventeen came from the central/eastern provinces. The balance of the Finnish American labor-political movement’s leaders, forty, or roughly 44 percent, came from Immigration Years of Finnish Labor-Political Leaders, 1888–1914. This diagram shows that the highest years of immigration for Finnish immigrant labor leaders to the United States or Canada came before the 1905 General Strike or Viapori Rebellion. (Gary Kaunonen.) 4 π chapter one southern areas, though not necessarily urban or industrial. Whether these people came from the western, northern, or central provinces of Finland as believers in the movement or found this ideology in America is not always clear, but in some cases, people moved from the agricultural hinterland to Finnish cities such as Helsinki, Hämeenlinna, or Tampere prior to making their way to America.3 Additionally...

Share