History 131b – Creating Modern American Society: From the End of the Civil War to the Present

I GO TO AMERICA

Serhad Ketsamanian

History 131B – Creating Modern American Society: From the end of the Civil War to the Present

September 29, 2015

Significant waves of immigration from Sweden to America began in the mid-nineteenth century and underwent an upsurge in the following years when the country suffered major agricultural disasters and hunger struck the population (18). Divided into five phases ranging from 1845 to 1920, this mass immigration movement marks an important period in Swedish history, especially for young Swedish women who hoped to find ameliorated life conditions in the United States of America, because it transferred Swedish domestic servants to an alternative yet more comfortable life. In her book I Go to America, Joy K. Lintelman recites Mina Anderson, a single Swedish lady, stating the she “got a better life here [in America].” Mina Anderson, born 1867 in the western Swedish province of Dalsland to a poor family was forced to support herself at age of sixteen, by working as a domestic servant in different locations. Once offered a ticket to travel to America by her uncle in 1890, Mina joined a number close to half a million of other Swedish immigrants as part of the third phase (1879-1893) of the Swedish mass immigration movement (71, 72).  It is interesting to study how better this life in America was for Swedish` women immigrants like Mina and examine the individual efforts of these women, as well as how assistance from other people or organizations aided them in the search for an improved life. Swedish Women like Mina Anderson who immigrated to America in a pursuit of happiness did not only find better economic opportunities and greater comfort in labor, but also experienced greater independence, stronger social bonds, higher fashion as well as superior marriage opportunities. With a little support from relatives, friends as well as groups, networks and organizations, these women were able to overcome difficult challenges and thus shape a healthier lifestyle.

        Economic improvement and higher salaries were the major reasons why Mina and other immigrants alike chose to transition to the United States for a “better life” and as a matter of fact female immigrants who had labored in domestic houses as servants or maids “found wages significantly higher than they had been able to earn in the homeland” (104). Majority of the latter women who moved to America came as single women who had been actively working in the domestic labor service of their homeland as pigor i.e. maids. However, their work was poorly recompensed. Employers paid little or not at all to this class of women laborers. Mina mentions in her memoir that during her employment as a full-time domestic servant in Sweden her yearly wage was far below the average of that time that female farm servants were supposed to earn. She desperately states that her earning consisted of “twenty-five kronor, two pairs of shoes, and other small things” (46). This case was not unique and it was commonly experienced by other female house servants as well. In a different household, Hilda Linder had earned no cash at all, only “material for black dress” during her initial year of employment. Even after starting another job, her new employer paid her only half of her work’s worth. Paying with goods and materials was a strategy that employers implemented to avoid paying cash wages (46, 47). By moving to America, these women experienced greater wages and higher pay. Mina’s yearly earnings in St. Paul were about four times higher than the average yearly wage she used to earn back in Sweden (104). Moreover, these pays were high enough for these young females that within a short period of time they were able to support their families and relatives on top of supporting themselves. Lintelman states that “[Mina] and others like her were not only able to support themselves but able to pay for immigration of their relatives, save money for the future and send money back home” and in fact, in only three years in the United States, Mina “had saved enough …to pay back her uncle… establish a household, and purchase a ship’s ticket allowing her sister … to immigrate” (114, 148).