Day 168: A Bohemian Migrant’s Journey: 1863, on Substack
We’re hearing a lot about migrants on the news these days, and how it’s driven in part by the increase in information (and disinformation) on social media about the journey and the conditions people can expect when they arrive here.
In the nineteenth century, communication was a lot more difficult, but migrants were coming then, too. The University of Minnesota’s awesome Immigrant History Research Center Archive has digitized letter to and from voluntary immigrants between 1850 and 1970.
Many 19th century immigrants couldn’t write, and if they could, they didn’t have time or couldn’t afford the paper or postage. Jozef Kostlan, who emigrated from Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic) to Iowa in 1863, was different. He wrote long, detailed letters home to his family about his family’s journey, what they found when they got here, and what he thought about it.
This week in How We Got Here, on Substack.