Slovaks in America: part I / Slovaci v Americe: cast 1.

I did couple articles on Czechs in America but how about those Slovaks (many of you might not know that my grandfather was Slovak)? True, those two groups get intermingled quite a bit since we were part of a one country for quite some time (1918-1991). There is fortunately quite a lot of information on this topic. The first Slovak who set his foot on the American soil was Isaac Ferdinand Sarosi, who immigrated in 1695. Isaac served as a teacher and a preacher in a religious colony in Pennsylvania called Germantown and (because of his homesickness??) returned back to Slovakia in 2 years of time.  About 100 years later an army of 300 Slovaks, who called themselves the “Blue Hussars”, came to fight with George Washington’s army in the War for Independence. After the war was over the surviving men settled in Maine.

A large-scale emigration wave from Slovakia  was caused by the cholera epidemic in 1873 and the subsequent crop failures all over the country. This movement was fueled also by coming of industrialization, in which many farmers lost their jobs.

During this unhappy time a world traveler named Daniel Sustek decided to purchase about 80 acres of land in Iowa in a hope to build a new thriving Slovak colony there (the article does not say if in fact his dream was fulfilled).

In 1886 Jan Slovensky (meaning “John Slovak” in English, that guy could not have a better name) published the first American-Slovak newspaper; its circulation grew up to 30,000 prints a day, which is more than any other Slovak paper of that time had ever reached, even those in Slovakia! Slovensky was a busy Slovak! He also published the first Slovak-English dictionary (Americky tlumac, see the second image) which was most helpful to the Slovak immigrants who barely spoke any English.

CZ: V minulosti jsem napsala o historii Cechu v Americe, ale jak to vlastne bylo se Slovaky? Jak se do Ameriky vubec dostali? Mnoho z vas jeste nevi, ze muj deda byl Slovak a proto mne toto tema zajima….a take jsem konec koncu vyrustala skoro polovinu meho zivota jako Cechoslovacka. Jelikoz tyto dva narody sdilely stejny stat pres 70 let, mnoho informaci o tomto tematu je dosti nejasnych – Cesi a Slovaci byli povazovani v zahranici za jedno. Nicmene, pojdme se venovat onomu tematu. Podle historickych dokumentu se prvni Slovenska dusicka objevila na Americkem kontinentu v roce 1695, presneji to byl pan jmenem Isaac Ferdinand Saros. Isaac slouzil v jedne Pensylvanske kolonii (zvane Germantown) nejen jako kantor, ale take jako pastor. Po dvou letech se mu asi zacalo styskat, a vratil se zpatky do rodne vlasti. O 100 let pozdeji do USA priplula 300-clena armada tzv. Modrych husaru a to aby pomohla Georgovi Washingtonovi vyhrat valku Nezavislosti. Po vitezstvi v bitve zbyli zdravi a zivi vojaci zakotvili v Mainu a to nadozivoti.

Obrovska emigracni vlna ze Slovenska byla zpusobena nestastnou epidemii cholery v roce 1873. Uroda v tomto roce byla velmi chuda a hlad a nemoc vystipali tisice Slovenskych rodin ze sve rodne vlasti. Cele situaci nepomohla take zacinajici inudstrializace cele Evropy, ktera mnohym farmarum ukradla jejich zivobyti primo z ruky. Behem teto doby se do Ameriky take prestehoval sbehly cestovatel Daniel Dusek, ktery se rozhodl v Iowe koupit 80 akru zeme a to aby tam vystavel novou, uspesnou, slovenskou komunitu (clanek se nezminuje o tom, jestli se mu to vubec povedlo).

V roce 1886 pan Jan Slovensky (nemohl mit lepsi jmeno) publikoval prvni Slovensko-Americke noviny, ktere dosahly az 30,000 vytisku denne! Tolik vytisku slovenskych novin se netisklo v teto dobe nikde na svete a to i na samotnem Slovensku! Pan Slovensky byl velmi zamestnany Slovak! Nejen ze tiskl noviny, ale take napsal prvni Slovensko-Anglicky slovnik (Americky tlumac), ktery byl uspesny zejmena u Slovenskych imigrantu hledajicich praci, aniz by umeli slovo anglicky.

Source: http://www.loc.gov/rr/european/imsk/slovakia.html