Early Emigrants: Sophie Sager -a woman before her time Part 2

Sophie's ordeal had made her aware of the lack of  legal rights for women and especially single unprotected women. She becan holding pulic lectures advocating for better womens rights first 1849 in Stockholm and later Uppsala and in the following years she visited Malmö,Gothenburg and Copenhagen.

She got a lot of audience, mostly young men but often met with  criticism because of her lack of “ladylike behaviour” Sophie  was ahead of its time and deviated from the ideal of the  passive, good womanhood. She had dared to do that no one else before her had done, namely, to use police force to defend their right not to be assaulted.. Maybe she was considered to forward  as she frequently advertised their activities in the press. 

her litterary production was little and and her talent lacking . Among her works include: Emanciperade fantasier i vers och prosa(Emancipated fantasies in verse and prose) 1850)

 Fonsterbarnets avslöjande genealogi (Pictures from life or Foster Child and its genealogy) (1852).

Sophie's thoughts were not revolutionary. She believed in the institution of marriage but thought women should have the right to a good education and to move freely in the community without having to bow to unnecessary conventions or be molested.

Emigration and life in the US

In1854 Sophie emigrated to the United States. She sailed with the bark Columbia from Hamburg with 200 German emmigrants. and arrived in New York August 5, 1854 In the lists of arrival she is listed as seamstress with her she had a two and a half year old child, if it was her own child, or if she has a child on behalf of another is not clear .

In 1855 Sophie married   the German music professor Eugene Adolphe Wiener (ca1813-1888). They had two  sons, Gabriel (1856-1932) and Victor Bolivar (1862-1932) The family settled in New York most of the time at different addresses in Brooklyn

Inthe Us federal census Census 1860 Sophie's husband is listed as music professor and in 1870 he is listed as as pianist and Sophie as musician

In 1861 Sophie published a pamplet called Woman's Destiny and Man's Duty Sophie and her husband separated around 1878 around 1878. In the mid and late 1880s Sophie held lectures on various topics, for example feminism, often her piano playing son Victor Bolivar performad with her, In 1887 Victor married a s girl of modest family background .She that was not good enough,for him according to Sophie who told the local newspaper, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle that he couldhave married a girl worth 60 000 dollar .. In 1888 Sophie became a widow according to the newspaper, he had devoted much of his time to think about a strategy how people could avoid bumping into each other on the street. 1893 Sophie suggested in the nespaper that passenger ships that sailed across the seas to oughto always sail in pairs if there were an accident they should be able to assist eachother.

Funeral and death

Sophie Sager died February 28, 1901 in her residence at 151 Jefferson Avenue in New York, According to the death certificate, she was 76 years old .She was buried two days later at her husband's side at the Greenwood Cemetery. According to an obituary d she was a famous lecturer

A year later, February 26, 1902 a memorial service over her was held inover her in the Swedish-American Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Brooklyn by Pastor J Jacobson.

The late memorial service supposedly gave rise to the rumor she'd died in 1902 Sophie's two sons died in 1932 Gabriel was unmarried, Victor had 4 children reaching adulthood

Sophie was ridiculed in her own time by her contemporaries.Today she is often seen as a early pioneer in the fight for womens rights. An her cause that a woman have the right to go unmolested in the public sphere is as actual now as it was then. However, Sophie was according son Gabriel against women's suffrage Today there is a street named after her in Enskededalen outside Stockholm.

Shipping disasters: Austrias fire 13 September 1858 Part 1

Background

During the  early days of the swedish emigration In the 1840-1850 thies   most emigrants left Sweden on sailings ships from swedish ports .Most of the ships where not regular passager ships .The journey could take between 8-12 weeks. However, there were already at that time bigger ships specialized in passenger traffic with hundreds of emigrants on board.

They were combined sail and steamships that passed from the British, German and French ports. They traveled quicker  across the Atlantic than sailing ships and crossed the Atlantic in about  14-21 days. Even though they were both bigger and faster , they were not always safe. Several major disasters occurred during the 1840-1850's. one of the worst was the Hamburg-America Line Austrias fire on September  13th 1858.

The Hamburg-America Line had started its passenger traffic in 1847 with sailing ships but in 1857 supplemented  it with steamers and purchased four new ships to operate the route from Hamburg  to  New York. In  1855  Hammonia and Borussia entered into service i, and in 1857 followed the sister ships Saxonia and Austria.

Austria was built on Werft Caird & Company (Caird & Co.) shipyard in Greenock in Scotland and launched June 23rd  1857.She was 318 ftand 2,684 BRT, with three masts and single screw propeller propulsion. The ship was built as a troop transport ship for the British  East India Company. She was, however, an unlucky  ship. Already  on October 5th  1857, she was hit by  a storm in the Bay of Biscay which killed  a crew member  .It severely damaged the ship  which had to sail back to Plymouth  to undergo extensive repairs. On her second trip, she  again encountered   a storm  both steam engines were badly damaged this time she must also return for repairs in Plymouth  In  May 1858 was taken over by the  Hamburg-America Line and was deployed on the route Hamburg-New York

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_(automobile)

The fateful trip

Passengers

On the quay in Hamburg where emigrant ships moored swarmed with people .Most of those who would sail  with Austria came from different parts of the  german speaking areas.There were no united Germany yet..Hamburg was an independent city state, and the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein belonged to Denmark...Some of the passengers  came from different parts of the  the Habsburg empire , a number of Americans who were visiting Europe were a also among the passengers. A dozen Scandinavians had also solved tickets in different price ranges.

Henriette Wullf and her friend and companion Caroline Howith from Copenhagen had allowed themselves first-class tickets .Caroline  was a was a well-travelled  single 54 year old sophisticated lady  and a close  friend of the writers H C Andersen and Fredrika  Bremer .This would be Caroline's third trip across the Atlantic in 10 years. She had previously visited both the Caribbean and the United States with her brother and  after his death, she decided to definitively emigrate  and settle in the United States.

Two returning  Swedish gold-diggers Anders Viktor Lindstein  and his friend John Holmberg had bought tickets in the cabin  class both men came from Västra Vingåker in Södermanland.They had visited friends and family and were now both on their way back to California .

Among the third class passengers were some other returning Swedish gold-diggers including Swen Peterson and S.P. Swensson from Landskrona area in Skåne .Swensson had married Peterson's sister Olivia and she was now following them back to USA. .The three siblings Anders,Sven and Carolina Nilsson came from Kläckeberga in Kalmar county .They had early lost their parents Anders had became a sailor and was now returning to bring his siblings to USA. .From Söderhamn came Charles Högqvist who had been on a visit  to his hometown Söderhamn in Hälsingland  ,with him followed the farmer Lars Dahlström from Söderala who decided to seek his fortune in America

Other Swedish passengers who had been home on a visit, Charles Rosin

Rosin had already in his youth emigrated from Kalmar  to America now he and 16-year-old son Charles  Jr.on their  way home to Richmond , Virginia after having visited relatives,
August Theodor Mankee had visited relatives in Stockholm and was now on his way home to Rock Island, Illinois. Among the  Scandinavians were also Sven and Daniel Danielsen who sailed to Hamburg from Stavanger. in Norway.

On August 31  all passengers were  carefully recorded In the passenger lists

Austria sailed September 1, 1858  from Hamburg on her  third trip to New York with about 538 people aboard passengers and crew under command of Captain FA Heydtman three days later she arrived in  Southampton where additional passangers boarded  .In the morning of September 4rd  Austria  steered out on  the Atlantic  The ship was estimated to arrive  in New York on September 18th. Unfortunately most of those on board were never to arrive to their destination.