Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Page 68 and Page 69


Page 68:

Around Helsingør and into the Eastern Sea. It then got pushed into Køge Bay, across Feddet and all the way down to Præstø. It even went to Kallehave and further towards the islands where it caused much damage along the way. Hundreds of ships wrecked on shore, houses were washed away in the flood and many animals as well as people died.

America fever:
A work shortage spread among the peasants because by now they all had had their properties marled and drained. you couldn't even get a job digging a single hole. Making matters worse was the fact that most farmers now had their own threshing machines that were pulled by two horses. Where you before had enough work for one farmer, two farmhands and a boy, now you could make due with two boys and one girl, when threshing was done. Gone was the need for the really qualified workers, which is why more and more of them began looking to America as a land of opportunity. Many a man from our area journeyed to America and they all wrote back that it truly was a paradise on earth. My wife and myself were also swept up by the spreading America fever 



Page 69:

and we began looking into whether or not it was possible for us to part ways with good old Denmark. We got connected with Peer Hansen who was supposed to give us 800 crowns in return for us vacating our land. (Which means), he would give us 800 crowns for us to move out of the house after which he would approach the noble family about him taking over the house. 
I then had to go see Counsellor Nielsen in Vindbyholt, where I had to ask, in the humblest of manner, to be released from my land contract. "Released from your house! You have no house! That house belongs to his lordship. Here you're running around, wheeling and dealing with houses that you have absolutely no ownership in. Well, who is supposed to get the house from you?" 
I told him, to which he replied; "I see, and how much have you been offered in order to vacate?"
"800 crowns, really? That's more than the entire property is worth. I imagine it's probably Johan Hylsenberg was the one who wrote you from America. He probably told you that over there, grilled pigeons fly straight into your mouth as long as you open it wide enough. Whatever, I will ask his lordship what he thinks about the entire affair. Come back in a couple of days and I'll let you know what he has decided."
I agreed, and a few days later we received our 800 crowns.




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