Abstract

During her lifetime, Elise Tvede Waerenskjold achieved fame as a “father” of Norwegian emigration for her editing of the pro-emigration journal Norway and America and her publishing, both in Norway and the U.S., of many letters encouraging her compatriots to make the long voyage from Norway to settle in Texas. Waerenskjold’s letters represent a body of persuasive documents that I refer to as emigration propagation. Emigration propagation, generally, and Waerenskjold’s letters, in particular, reveals the persuasive strategies that entreated many millions to cross the Atlantic and begin new lives in a new place so far from home.