Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Qupperneq 15

DANISH EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA
5
tion was the changing political conditions in Slesvig. As early
as the 1840’s there had been some emigration to America of Ger-
man Slesvigers and Holsteiners, and this emigration increased
after the Dano-German war of 1848—50. After the Dano-
German war of 1864, there began an exodus of Danish Slesvigers,
which continued during the following decades. These Slesvigers
joined other Danish emigrants and were, among other things,
, ^ ^unders of the first Danish settlements in New York State,
Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and California.
Between 1867 and 1871 a total of 3905 Slesvigers emigrated to
the United States. Of these, 1708 came from the preponderantly
Danish districts of Haderslev, Aabenraa, Sonderborg, Flensborg,
and Tonder in North Slesvig. In the 1870’s and 1880’s this
emigration reached even larger figures, but after that it decreased
again. No detailed information is available for these periods.
German statistics show that during the period 1871 —1900 a total
°f 126,460 persons left Slesvig and Holstein for overseas coun-
tries, most of them going to the United States.
The Danish emigrants came from all parts of the country.
It is, however, a noteworthy fact that a relatively large pro-
portion of them came from the smaller Islands of Denmark,
such as e. g. Als, Langeland, Æro, Mon, and Bornholm.
All classes of the community were represented. Most of the
emigrants were workers (and especially agricultural labourers),
artisans, and small-holders, but their number also included
farmers, dairymen, school-teachers, clergymen, doctors, lawyers,
and artists. Among them there were comparatively few belong-
mg to the category of “undesired immigrants.”
, The average Danish emigrant had little money, but plenty
of energy and capacity for work, and as emigrants usually left
Denmark during the spring, they had no difficulty in finding
employment. They belonged to the most welcome type of im-
tnigrant, because of their interest in and aptitude for the cultiva-
tion of the soil, and moreover they showed themselves to be
possessed of the tenacity and staying power which was one of
the first requisites of pioneer life. Like the other pioneers of the
prairie, they first lived in primitive cabins dug into the earth,
which they later on replaced by log cabins or some more com-
fortable type of dwelling.
The first Danish immigrants usually landed at New Orleans,
from where they proceeded up the Mississippi. Others went ashore