As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the education of Brigitta was the lynch pin in the Anderson family’s upward mobility. While progress was slow at first, once her children came of age, her homeschooling really paid off. She also gradually molded her husband’s farming practices and as a result as I previously mentioned gave them the wherewithall to send their first two sons Charles to “katedralskola” or Lutheran cathedral schools (founded in 1641) and were located at each diocese and Hans to the Royal War Academy in Karlberg, Stockholm and which was founded in 1792 and prepared subjects for both the army and the navy. In 1865, the training for the two services was separated when a charter was issued for the Royal Swedish Naval Academy. This is strictly for reference since Hans was already enlisted in the US Navy by 1856.

As was the standard Hans entered the academy in his 14th year. The training lasted for four years and consisted of training in both regular school subjects and training in military ones.

Photo—Karlberg War Academy, Stockholm, Sweden

The Karlberg cadets had to compete with cadets trained at the regiments, and a disadvantage for the war academy cadets were the fact that they were lacking experience of commanding troops. On the other hand, the war academy cadets had an advantage in getting a position as a staff officer. Prior to 1835, there was no official exam to receive a commission as an officer. However, since Hans enrolled in 1844, he had to take the compulsory exam. Since he had a strong home schooling background, he was at an advantage over the rest of the cadets. He lucked out in that he missed the 1852 date when it became mandatory to have a high school degree.

Since the Swedish Navy was quite small, there were limited opportunities for Hans, so he enlisted in the Merchant Marines after graduating from the academy. The average length of service was 5 to 10 years. Since Hans was still young and did not have any other prospects, he opted for an 8 year stint. Thanks to his training and education, he had a leg-up on many of the other seamen. So even though he had to start at the same level, he progressed rapidly, and in no time at all, he was a first mate.

To just backtrack a little, in the early to mid 1800s and even before, unless you were of noble birth, the outlook for the vast majority of the Swedish population was rather glum. So even though it doesn’t seem like the two Anderson boys’ futures were bright, they were “heads and shoulders above” the rest of the population. To further illuminate the matter, let me delve just a little deeper into the matter since part of the discussion will also pertain in part to his younger brother Charles as well.

Notwithstanding the idea of going to sea as a means of social advancement, the prospects of a self-made man have been less stressed in works underlining the precariousness of the sailor’s work and its similarity to any other wage labour in the 18th- and 19th-century capitalizing industries. According to these views, the world of a seafarer was merely the pursuit of ready wages and free housing. In this respect, the sailor’s work transformed from a work in a hierarchical, patriarchal but egalitarian ship’s company to that of work characterized by despotic discipline and dramatic social barriers between crew and officers. In practice, old and new working cultures emerged. Many scholars also highlight the nature of seafaring as a young man’s job, requiring no specific skills or experience, with extreme physical burden and dangers of the work, in addition to poor pay.

It has been recently shown that not only were Swedish sailors recruited during their working lives for various tasks on board ships but also that most of them worked ashore during and after their seagoing careers. They were, as David Alexander has pointed out, just ‘working men that got wet’. letarianization already occurred, during the age of sail. Remarkable heterogeneity characterized the coeval sailor population, however, in terms of their occupational status on board as well as their socio-economic status in seaport communities. The structural change in the economy served to create supply and demand of labour force; emerging industrialization demanded more young and unskilled men both in Sweden and Finland as of the latter part of the 19th century, leaving the older men to continue their careers in the maritime sector.

As the prevalence of primary production began to give way to a more multifaceted economy of industries, services, and professions, although the urbanization rate remained low in the Nordic countries and agricultural work dominated the labour markets throughout the timeframe of this article. Additionally, the work itself was changing from patriarchal, supervised subjectivity and undifferentiated seasonal part-time work to time-based, occupational, specific paid labor, which also often necessitated mobility. Seafaring is not only a satisfying and worthwhile career choice in itself, it is also a passport to a huge variety of related jobs ashore for which experience at sea will make one eminently qualified. Thus, seafaring is usually seen both today and historically as a stopgap.

In the case of Hans, it was more than just a stop-gap measure because once his eight years were up, he opted to continue on with his naval career. During this time, he had spent quite a bit of time in ports along the America’s, especially Boston and New York. During these lay-overs, he became enamored with not only the country but the spirit of the people. So he enlisted in the American merchant marines and subsequently the U.S. Navy in 1856. During his time in the Swedish Merchant Marines, he had little contact with his family and, as a result, was not aware that they too were making their own plans to emigrate to the Americas as well. Unfortunately, like two ships passing in the night, the two brothers would have no contact even when they eventually both fought in the Civil War.

Even though his brother was ordained as a Lutheran minister, he was not happy with the strictness of the religion and the overbearing nature of it in Swedish society. As I mentioned in Chapter Two, many people were jailed or exiled for practicing other religions than the Lutheran religion. Even though he was a lutheran minister, Charles was always somewhat of a free spirit, and he simply could not condone the heavy-handed nature of his chosen faith. He felt that there had to be more to christianity than this intolerant behavior. Jesus, after all, was a god of love and tolerance. So he started working on his parents to see if he could convince them to emigate to the Americas. He knew that he did not have enough money to make this move on his own. He was quite surprised that it took so much convincing to get his parents to agree to the move.

Land especially fertile land was at a premium in Sweden, and thanks to their advanced planting techniques, they had the most fertile land in Smaland. So they were able to command a prime price when it came time to put it up for sale. Due to the cramped quarters on the sailing ships, they were limited to how much they could bring with them. Thanks to letters from previous emigrating family members, they knew that iron farming implements were at a premium, so besides food, these tools made up the vast majority of their valuables that they brought with them. So along with the land, they sold the majority of their belongings. Selling their belongings proved to be the bitterest pill to swallow. Brigitta spent a lot of time crying while she sorted through all her worldly possessions. However, this forced sell-off proved to be fortuitist because there would be a lot of extra costs along the way.

Thanks to the poor financial status of Sweden in the 1700s and 1800s, forced sell-offs, thanks to unpayable land taxes, forced sell-offs, were quite common. Financial institutions and alternative strategies in overcoming economic stress were somewhat limited.

The pre-industrial society was marked by many transformations, e.g., an altering social structure due to the agrarian revolution as well as the industrial revolution. Urbanization and proletarization of the people in Scania was another transformation and brought new forms of obstacles for the population. The population of Scania underwent a number of measures to prevent starvation such as migrating, postponing childbirth, increasing/decreasing the household’s labor force, or selling possessions. The most viable instances of acquiring cash or credits were from the unofficial credit market and the second-hand markets as well as auctions. These “pawn-shops” were notoriously innefficient in that they limited the freemen by formal requirements such as security in the form of land in the case of official credit institutions or high extortionist interest rates in pawnshops Moreover, pawnshops of the 19th century were not common, underdeveloped, and lacked legislation as well as transparency, giving them a bad reputation among the population. Their development started in the middle and increased towards the end of the 19th century by requiring security for loans, even if the lender was a relative.

So, the only other method to raise money was through the above-mentioned auction. They became popular in the cases of deaths of relatives, bankruptcy, or just simply to raise money.

During Papa Gordon’s and my research, one thing became apparent, and that was that these auctions had a dark side. It turns out that these auctions were not limited to possessions, such as land, tools, furniture, and other personal items. Children were also auctioned to raise much need funds. So even cultures and countries that were not know for Chattel slavery (a form of slavery where people are treated as property, or chattel, and can be bought, sold, and inherited), it still reared its ugly head.

During the 19th century, poor and orphan Swedish children were boarded out. The foster parents’ compensation was determined in English auctions. A descending English auction was used to allocate foster parents to the children. The auctions were open, and the children who were put up for “sale” were present at the auction. Potential foster parents bid against each other, and the bids corresponded to the demanded level of compensation for taking care of the child. These auctions were managed by the local Public Assistance Board. The lowest bidder became the child’s foster parent, and the Assistance Board compensated him with an annual amount equal to his bid. Auctions of children in Sweden were prohibited by law in 1918. There was an economic motive un derlying these auctions. Children who could be useful in the household commanded a lower level of compensation than those who could not. Age and health were two of the factors that affected a child’s usefulness. In all cases, the agreed compensation level was positive, reflecting higher costs than benefits for the foster parents. The boarding spell could be temporary, or it could last until a child’s fifteenth birthday. Some children were auctioned more than once, sometimes to a new foster parent, sometimes to the previous foster parent, although with a new level of com pensation. The foster parents provided the child with housing, upbringing, any education, but the children were often used for child labor. Especially in the Scannia countryside, children sold at auction usually lived in very poor conditions and were often mistreated.

Auction Room

While this was not the case with the Andersons, due to the subject matter of this trilogy, I felt that documenting this abhorrent practice was germane to the subject matter. Even though this practice is now illegal in Sweden, it still takes place in countries like the Philippines and Thailand. The auction of Anderson’s farm land and personal belongings proved to be quite fruitful and subsequently provided enough funds for the family to migrate not only to the Americas but to their final destination in Minnesota. Their story will continue in the following chapters.