A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1994 (Debrecen, 1996)

Történelem - Rácz István: Sámuel Gáborjáni-Szabó, the Freedom-Fighter Debrecen Student who escaped to the United States

István Rácz SÁMUEL GÁBORJÁNI-SZABÓ, THE FREEDOM-FIGHTER DEBRECEN STUDENT WHO ESCAPED TO THE UNITED STATES In 1882 and 1892 the students who signed the college statutes in 1842, organised a meeting to celebrate the 40th and the 50th anniversary of their entering Debrecen college. They decided to write the story of their lives and collect their memoirs in one volume. Sixteen one-time students confessed to each other and to posterity. The longest curriculum vitae was written by Sámuel Gáborjáni-Szabó. It was not by chance that he had the most to say; he could relate a lot of events of public interest. During the revolution and war of independence in 1848 and 1849, he together with other students of the college joined the troops of Kossuth, took part in battles; he was even wounded. After the defeat of the war of independence he did not accept the amnesty offered by the Austrians and had to leave the country. For a while he was one of the emigrants grouping around Kossuth; later he wandered about the world alone, through Wallachia he reached Bulgaria and Turkey, then he travelled to England and at last he sailed to the United States. Most of his autobiography is about this period. As he spent the period in the United States, it is his emigrant years there that he wrote the most about. I lis autobiography is worth of attention as it depicts the kind of life emigrants of the period lived. On the other hand, it gives information on the way of life and traditions in the recipient countries. 142