200 Years of Norwegian Migration to the USA

Abstract

The voyage of the sloop Restauration from Stavanger to New York in 1825 marked the beginning of organized migration from Norway to North America. Previous commemorations celebrated this event as a transnational success story. The article challenges such one-sided settlers’ narratives: First, it relates the history of Norwegian migration to interactions with Native Americans. Second, it argues that the navigation processes of Norwegian Lutherans in the USA and the challenges of “integration” can be compared to processes in which religious immigrant communities in Norway find themselves today. Third, it investigates transnational missionary cooperations between Norwegian Lutherans and US Norwegian Lutherans. Some of these networks provided counter-hegemonic alliances: The Sami missionary Edvard Masoni expressed strong sympathy for the Native Americans. Therefore, we suggest supplementing the term “transnationalism” by the term “transloyalties” as an analytical approach.