The Early 1800's - More about the Times

I have often wondered why so many people left Norway at this time. My brother even said after looking at the beautiful photos of their farms, Why would people leave such a beautiful place? Why, indeed?

Wikipedia says:

...Between 1396 and 1536 Norway was a part of the Kalmar Union, and from 1536 to 1814 Norway was effectually a tributary to Denmark, and was called Denmark-Norway. Denmark–Norway entered into an alliance with Napoleon, with the war leading to dire conditions and mass starvation in 1812....

In the Vik area --

On December 2nd 1811 there was a landslide in Arnafjorden in Nese which devastated the area. Forty-five people were killed. The farm buildings in Nese were all gathered together in one place, just where the landslide happened. Then, in 1812, crops were very bad. People had to work very hard just to get by. They needed help, but it was hard to get help. Even by around 1830 or so, people had still not fully recovered from the hard times. 

In 1839, the first people left Vik for America. They were Per Ivarson Undi and his wife and children. They were the first emigrants from the Sogn og Fjordane County and they were the start of a flood of people leaving the area. Looking at the villages in and around Vik, more than 4,000 people left Vik. Now, there are only about 2,700 people in Vik, but there are thousands of Americans with roots in Vik i Sogn.

And then there were hard social conditions. They did not exactly have serfdom in Norway, but something similar.

Norwegian serfdom can be a way of defining the position of the Norwegian lower class farmers, though they were not actually in serfdom by European standards. The evolution of this social system began about 1750.

The system of Norwegian inheritance was based on a paternal line. Usually the younger sons got a share of the original farm, thus splitting it up in smaller homesteads. In the eastern parts of the country, and to some extent the mountain municipalities, the smaller homesteads still belonged to the main farm, and the lesser farmers were obliged to work the fields on the main farm as well as their own, in exchange for living there. This could lay heavy burdens on the smaller homesteads.

Vik Coat of Arms*

Sogn og Fjordane

As time passed, the smaller homesteads passed from farmer to farmer, and the actual bonds between the families could be broken. In Hedmark, a main farm could govern up to ten smaller homesteads, spread around in the forests and fields connected to the farm. Social exploitation could often be a result of this policy, and also a strict social order, not to be broken (described in some of the novels of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, and later Ingeborg Refling Hagen and Alf Prøysen). The difference from serfs elsewhere was that the farmer did not directly own the life and property of the homesteader (Husmann), but in most cases, he practically did. In Hallingdal this was most common in the lower parts of the valley, and, at some point, all the serfs were evicted, and the homesteads torn down. Many of the Norwegian migrants to America came from this social class. So did also the main stock of Norwegian workers, as the land got crowded and the shifting of land came to an end about 1860.

Vik within Sogn og Fjordane

Could the landslide and subsequent bad economic times along with Ivar's parents deaths in 1850 have pushed him into going to America to better himself? Since 1839, people had started to leave. He must have heard the stories of abundant land to be had to any hard working family.  And in his position of being the 4th son in a large family, he would have expected to get little after his parents deaths. And with their deaths in 1850, it must have been very clear to him what he could expect.

*The coat of arms, granted on March 15, 1991 shows 3 knives for cutting leaves used for fodder.