Vilhelm Moberg - The Emigrants

The money was called dollars, and one dollar equaled two or three riksdaler — maybe more. A good farmhand could earn as much as a hundred and twenty-five dollars a year, and that was more than three hundred riksdaler. Arvid worked here in Nybacken for forty riksdaler a year and a suit of wadmal. If one counted the wadmal at ten riksdaler, one still earned more in one year in America than in six years at Aron’s. And the food was seven times better. The Americans had good solid fare: all people ate pork and white bread every day, and Sundays they had double portions of pork to the bread. Salt herring was forbidden as food. The cattle in America were better fed than the servants in Sweden. The fare Aron in Nybacken gave to his servants would be rejected by the pigs in America, for they were very particular. A pig in the New World lived as well as a count in Sweden.

Robert related what he remembered from the book, the words came pouring from his lips, and perhaps, in his enthusiasm, he added a little here and deducted a little there, but it evened out so that the truth about the United States of America did not suffer from it.

And he carried his comrade away so that Arvid trembled at the revelations. Now and then he put in his “No! No! God! God Almighty! The devil it is! Christ in hell!” and other expressions which he daily carried on his lips and which meant nothing in particular. Arvid had never read a description of heaven, since he could not read, and he had never heard the dean describe it from the pulpit, either, for the dean only spoke of happenings in hell; but if only half the contents of Robert’s book were true, and the other half a lie, then the book must describe a heaven on earth.

But Arvid asked about other things, as for example the wild heathen, Indians who flayed people on the head with their knives and were unfriendly toward Christians. There was nothing in the book about Indians’ scalping people, said Robert. Arvid then wondered if the wild animals in North America were dangerous. Were there any angry snakes there? He had always been afraid of crawling animals, never daring to kill a snake, and avoiding small quadrupeds. Robert admitted that in America great wild animals did live, and they could kill people, and were consequently a little annoying. The fiercest beast was the gray bear, who attacked all who tried to take his life. But if you lay down on the ground and pretended you were dead, the bear would leave you in peace. There were also lions and tigers and wolves there, but they had a natural fear of people and attacked only if wounded or frightened. There were poisonous rattlesnakes but they rattled and made a noise when they crawled in the woods and could be heard at great distances, so it was easy to run away from them. America had also some irritating small creatures, grasshoppers, blowflies, cankerworms on the fruit trees and others, but they were unable to kill people. The grasshoppers ate only crops, they were quite satisfied with this. No, no one need be afraid to live in America on account of wild animals.

No, Arvid wasn’t afraid of them either, he had only asked for the fun of it. And now he knew how it was: when the bears came, one was to lie flat on the ground and pretend to be dead. And he had good hearing; no doubt he would hear when the snakes came rattling and have time to run away.

About those who were called Negroes and had black woolly hair, it said in the book that they were kept as slaves, and were bought and sold as if they were cattle. Robert did not think this was being fair to them. Otherwise they seemed to have it decent and comfortable enough, and he read for Arvid about them: “Many slaves have better living quarters, food, clothing, care, working conditions and old-age security than most of England’s factory workers or the peasants in Europe. They have their own chickens and pigs, their own piece of land where they can cultivate whatever they wish and sell the yield for their own profit. A half-year may pass without abuse from their owner. It has therefore happened that liberated slaves — dissatisfied with their newfound liberty and its consequent responsibilities — have again sold themselves as slaves.”

Arvid listened in amazement: the slaves had their own chickens and their own pigs? And their own piece of land? And better food and clothing than most peasants at home? Then the best one could do on arriving in America would be to sell oneself as a slave; it would be the wisest thing a farmhand could do. Here in Sweden he would never be able to acquire his own patch of land, or chickens or pigs.

Robert said it was forbidden in America for white-skinned people to sell themselves as slaves.

“Forbidden?” retorted Arvid. “But you said America was a free land, that all people could do as they pleased. You just said so.”

“Yes, yes, but that kind of trade is forbidden anyway. For whites.”

“But why should it be forbidden to sell oneself? When all have the right to do as they please?”

Robert was confused, he couldn’t answer this. And Arvid thought that probably there was a difference between people in America, after all, if the whites did not have the same rights as the blacks to become slaves and have their own land with chickens and pigs.

He would have liked to read a few chapters in the book, Arvid would, if he had been able to, with his weak eyes; but he got such an eye-smart when he read; wouldn’t his friend continue?

Robert turned the page to a new chapter, describing the life of the inmates of an asylum in the New World — an asylum in Pennsylvania: “In this house the weak-minded work in their clear moments with weaving, wood chopping, sewing, spinning, knitting, etc., to shorten the time and occupy their minds, besides which for the same reason there are available books, newspapers, chess games, musical instruments, like the flute and the pianoforte. . ”

“For the crazy?” exclaimed Arvid.

“It says ‘the weak-minded.’”

“They have newspapers? And play flutes?” For the first time Arvid voiced doubt.

“Well — look for yourself.”

“God Almighty!”

But it was the truth, Robert’s eyes were too good to make a mistake in his reading. And when everything was so fine and expensive for insane people in America, one could easily imagine how the sane lived.

Arvid agreed immediately to go with his comrade to the New World.

In the United States of America no one could have heard the ugly rumor which the old woman in Nybacken had spread about him. There no one knew of the horrible deed with the white heifer which he was accused of here at home. In America no one would call him the Bull behind his back; there the girls wouldn’t shun him; there he could look all people freely in the eyes and be held in regard like other menfolk.

And on this the big servant shook hands with the little one: together they would cross the ocean.

— 5—

The lantern in the stable room burned late into the night while Arvid and Robert planned their future emigration. And none but the bedbugs in the rotten walls shared their secret deliberations.

Robert had been clever when he figured on driving Aron’s timber wagon to Karlshamn; thus the master would contribute, as it were, toward the fare for the journey to America. In the harbor town they would later come to agreement with some captain to sail them across the sea.

Arvid wondered: “How much is the fare across the ocean?”

Robert knew: The transportation from the port of embarkation in Sweden to New York in America, including provisions for the voyage, firewood, and fresh water, cost one hundred and fifty riksdaler 1for a grown person. To this was added ten riksdaler entrance fee to America, and some other expenses, so that every emigrant needed about two hundred riksdaler. He himself had that sum — his inheritance — remaining with his brother in Korpamoen.