Szili Ferenc: Kivándorlás a Délkelet-Dunántúlról Horvát-Szlavónországba és Amerikába 1860-1914 (Kaposvár, 1995)
Résumé
the emigrants we can find some relatively well-to-do people possessing several thousand crowns' worth of real estate and they certainly emigrated with a view to increasing this fortune. The poorer ones could only raise the money with the help of the people who vouched for them and in several cases supported them financially. True that the vouchers mostly came from the close relation, however, sometimes it happened that there were no ties of this kind. Then what made them undertake the responsibility that went with serious consequences? We assume this was a kind of „loan-business" that was to be paid off by the emigrants after returning. People in villages had always been suspicious in matters of loans. It is presumable that part of the money either sent or brought home went into the pocket of the vouchers who had done this favor along with its interest. Thus emigration can be regarded as an individual, family and community enterprise. For many people only the collective cooperation made it possible to travel. Even if in an economic sense this cannot be regarded as an enterprise, yet it was. It was the biggest enterprise of the peasant society of the beginning of the century when undertaking the risk and the hardships, most of them were able to make their lot better. It is evident that in the LISA mostly the industrial and bank capital, the stock corporations and the European maritime companies enjoyed the usufruct of the emigration. However, it can also be proved that part of the „American" Hungarians returned with a considerable sum of money. With the money sent home they bought land, house and machines. Having been influenced by the American way of living, they set up higher standards and became more receptive to culture, and they publicly gave voice to their democratic rights. The letters written by the emigrants are documents of an age with the help of which we can get an insight into the intimate spheres of the peasant society as well. Never have so large a number of letters by emigrants been published. In these letters the „invisible" history 7 comes to life. We can read confessions and personal emotions that are unmatchably beautiful and true. We can hold these letters written by peasants for the most part to be the pearls of folk literature. These letters written to their beloved ones confess about this great enterprise, human lots, joys and failures, successes and tragedies. We treasure more than a hundred of these documents in the Archives of Somogy County. On the letters the colorful stickers with the picture of Virgin Mary, devotional pictures and flower patterns show the wealth of the new w T orld too. On some of them the Hungarian flag and coat-of-arms can be seen, and on others the American banner is added to them indicating the dual ties. The letters radiate the desire after the family, reflect loneliness, jealousy and the feeling of being homesick. We can learn what the emigrants think about their new and old countries. These people who not so long before could only see as far as the boundaries of their villages now had a wider outlook and viewed the Hungarian events through critical eyes. In the atmosphere of the American democracy they experienced a crucial change in their minds; a lot of them through staying out there continuously for years, others through taking a chance several times. Fthnographically, the greetings used in the letters are interesting too, and its various ways of endearment within the letter. It was not typical of a peasant to use colorful adjectives and to open up emotionally. In traditional life - situations these manifestations of emotion and passion could not have happened. But here, people found themselves in situations they had never experienced before. Most of the published letters were written by peasants and workers from Somogy county who
