The following are personal recollections from immigrants, specifically
relating to their voyage and early settlement here in Michigan.
After their long journey, the immigrants
finally arrived and wrote back to their family and friends from their
village, giving them advice on what to do if they immigrated. This is what
G. Heerspink wrote to his brother in 1850:
"(...), if the Lord wants it I tell you how you must immigrate, to stay in
Albany in Trooi or Buffulloo first of all, there are many Dutch, who could
learn you everything, there you can earn a lot of
money with Gods blessing, if you want to immigrate, especially take
woollen clothes, flaxes and woollen yarn and baize (editorial note -
thick, pure wool flannel), cotton isn't more expensive then
in the Netherlands, take spinning-wheels with you and your clock. Here are
clocks cheap and bad, tobacco is expensive and bad. Till the journey, eat
potatoes, buckwheatmeal, beans, dried
meat and bacon, pepper, salt, vinegar, coffee and especially tea, you need
many sacks of victuals for the journey, you have to buy small barrel with
salt fish in the last city you leave, get
especially a water-cask with a funnel, in which you get your daily water,
buy it full with water, where you leave the harbor."
This is a typical newspaper advertisement from a ship broker in the
Netherlands advertising voyages to America. It translates to: "Emigrators
to the United States of North America. The ship
brokers Wambersie & Son in Rotterdam has weekly expeditions to the main
ports of the United States, by steam boat or sailing ship, and at the
fairest prices. Address yourself to the above
address to obtain detailed information."
The ships which navigated to and from America did more than simply ferry
the immigrants. They bartered many European goods: woolen clothes, pans,
and axes. They brought back to Europe
fish, wood, fur, tobacco, and agricultural produce like grain and cotton.
"Much space, where we otherwise could sleep, was occupyed by mediums of
exchange. Now we had to sleep over each other."
After a long journey at sea, the passengers were very glad that they were
on land again.
"Some of them were sitting on their knees, and thanked God in the Heaven,
because they hadn't any trials and dangers of the ocean."
But not all the dangers were gone. The only large welcome the immigrants
received was from swindlers, who took what little money they had. Not
knowing how to speak English, the immigrants
tended to trust anyone who appeared to have a kind smile. After a couple
of days (editorial note - in New York) they went on to Michigan.
After the big, long and unsure trip, the people finally arrived in the big
and dangerous Michigan, which only promised an unsure live. The emigrants
heard much warnings. It wasn't great, but with
the help of the entire community, the immigrants managed to make a life
for themselves.
"We arrived in an area full with trees, and we had to fell a lot. The
tree-stumps had to be burnt down. There were bears and woulves. And if we
couldn't scare them enough, so that they would
run away, we had big problems. But these things weren't the worst, there
were also many different human enemies, which we had to remove from our
land. To make matters worse, we had to
work in a inhospitable climate."
The emigrants were, most of the time, simple people, and they were
surprised by the social freedom they had in America, which they had not
had in the Netherlands. They had been ignored by
some people because of their religion. That's why they were attracted to
Michigan. In 1854 Markus E. Nienhuis wrote about it:
"You can choose your own religion, nobody will force you, what the teacher
wants to preach and where and how you want to build a church, you can do
it how you want to do it, but the problem is
that everybody has to manage for hisself. And there aren't any
country-roads. (..) We can also live here relaxed.. (..) We are saved from
being slaves and we don't have to work for people who
want to be paid, so that we don't have the chance to be set out of our
homes."
Freedom of choosing your religion was very important for the emigrants.
The emigrants were also surprised by the lack of oppression by the
government. Children played without shoes on their
feet and women rode horses and carriages. They also got a day-off when
there was a funeral of somebody they knew, which they did not get in the
Netherlands.
