Norway to America: A History of the Migration (review)

116QUAKERHISTORY cultural-religious roots, and in the process to capture some components of their style. And what he does for the native, Arthur Roberts may do for us of all branches of the people called Friends, reminding us how the Spirit moves and calls choice young and older people, lay and ministerial, to lives of inconvenient service and witness in the 1670's or the 1970's. Reminding us, too, of the essential bond between faith and social service in both periods, a bond broken or neglected by varied segments of Quakerdom through these centuries. George Fox CollegeLee Nash Norway to America: A Hutory of the Migration. By Ingrid Semmingsen. Translated from the Norwegian by Elinar Haugen. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1978. 213 pages, illustrated. $12.95. In Norway, research in the history of emigration started about 1930. Since then, interesting studies and material have been published in an expanding literature. A well-known name in this connection is Ingrid Semmingsen, professor of history at the University of Oslo. Among her earlier works are two voluminous and interesting books published under the joint title "Veien mot vest . . ." ("The Western Road . . ."). These works are detailed studies in the emigration from Norway to America 1825 to 1915. In 1975 the author published "Drom og dad" (Dream and Deed"), now available in an American edition under the title, Norway to America. The Norwegian original of this book was written for die sesquicentennial commemoration of the departure in 1825 of the sloop, "Restauration," and the hundreds of thousands of emigrants who followed in its wake (author's preface). The ship left Stavanger (Norway) with America as destination. This migration was initiated by members of the recently established (1818) small group of Quakers in Stavanger. Printed in good, clear typeface, the author presents a short narrative account of the larger themes relating to the Norwegian migration to America. Analysis in depth of all the aspects of the movement is not claimed. The intention has been to shed light on some of the factors that the author thinks are of central importance to an understanding of the migration. "Emigrated to America": such, or similar, words are added to the names 'of several Friends in an old ledger once seen in the Quaker House in Stavanger (Norway). However, emigrants certainly were to be found among other groups of die population as well. It is estimated that eight hundred thousand persons left Norway during the period 1825 to 1930. Most of them never returned. In 1879 the population of Norway counted less than two million. From this year and during the next fourteen years, just over a quarter of a million left Norway as emigrants. Why did all of these people leave? It seems evident that the pioneers of 1825, some with a Quaker background and others with a background in the Hans Nielsen Hauge movement, had a rather strong religious reason. These groups had felt the want of religious freedom of conscience in Norway. And freedom of religious conscience was just what they were hoping to find in the new land. The author indicates that in 1825 the Quakers played an important part; but Friends in Norway were few in number. Because of this, they did not become a major impulse to emigration. BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES117 Of importance is the fact that the growing population after 1814 in Norway constituted a continual pressure on the resources. All in all, the distribution of property and wealth had become more skewed during the half century after this year, especially in the good agricultural districts of eastern Norway and Trondelag. Later, during the period of mass emigration (1865-1915), the changes in the social economic pattern gradually resulted in a reduction in the need for manpower. On die other side of the Atlantic, though, hands were in demand. The author comes to the conclusion that the demographic factor is a decisively significant component in the mass emigration. Ingrid Semmingsen covers several aspects: Did ship-owners and skippers, by offering transportation, stimulate emigration? Or was it the other way around? Trials and triumphs in the emigrant's everyday life, glimpses from the settler's life in the land of...