One of the most widespread ideas about life in the past, before modern society’s breakthrough, is about how static and stagnant existence was. In particular, the peasants are said to have been born and died without ever seeing anything other than the same old bit of land. This notion was, for example, Vilhelm Moberg from in ”the Emigrants”, where Kristina and Karl Oskar was described as ”the first emigrants from their locality”, after that their ancestors lived in the same place for as long as anyone can remember.
But the image of the unchanging life in days gone by does not match particularly well, but is rather like a myth. It is shown by a new thesis in history from Södertörn university, ”Migration in the 1600-century Sweden” by Martin Andersson. In it, Andersson made a stop in an unusually detailed source material, which becomes a peephole into the early 1600-century society. It is on the records of who paid the special tax that was taken out 1613-1618 to buy back the Älvsborg fortress from Denmark. In skatteregistren, you can see who has paid tax for a year, and even if and in that case why don’t they pay the following year – which in many cases turns out to depend on the person in question has moved.
turns out there is clearly, according to Martin Andersson, the swedes moved. Not all of course, but many. And it was equally true for farmers as for the servants, the townspeople as soldiers. For example, the moved on average 3-6% of the farmers in Östergötland, Närke, Södermanland and Småland each year. About as large turnover in the population, one can see in contemporary cities. Most moved in and not so far, but only a few miles at a time. But over time it does major changes, which clearly contradicts the established picture of how people of the past should have lived – ”a picture is therefore now the brand should be rejected”, as Martin Andersson writes.
Some historians who previously looked at this material has argued that it is misleading, because Sweden during the 1610’s should have been in a particularly tumultuous period. But according to the new thesis does not agree with this reasoning, not least because the results so clearly consistent with what emerged when historians studied the similar materials in other countries from förmodern time.
in other words, both wanted to and could people in the past move on to seek a better life elsewhere – even in the past, changes a part of everyday life.
When George Washington was close to murdered,
Just a few days before the american independence was signed in July 1776, was George Washington, then leader of the army who fought for the country’s freedom from great Britain, near to murdered. It can be seen in a newly-published book, ”The First Conspiracy” by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. Which tells of how the british agents managed to recruit men from Washington’s life guard in order to kill him. The eulogy was revealed, however, at the last moment. One of them was executed, but the incident were hushed up in order not to spread unrest in the army. Washington’s forces won the battle against great Britain and he himself was 23 years later – in 1789 – the newly-formed AMERICA’s first president.
George Washington crossing the Delaware river 1776 Photo by: akg/North Wind Picture Archives Tablet testifies of the ancient schoolwork
”You can’t trust all your friends”. So read the sentence, written in Greek, as a pupil in Egypt got to the task to copy almost 2000 years ago. The lesson, as the young learner carved into a tablet of wax, is an exceptionally well-preserved testimony about how life could look like in a school, during the ancient times. The whiteboard, which is unusually well preserved, during the spring of 2019 to appear on a new exhibition about the skrivkonstens history at the British Museum in London. The museum’s experts establishes that the student’s handwriting is ”a bit clumsy”. Was probably the pupil of a boy from a rich family, because it’s almost only those that received formal training at this time.
Greek skolövning Photo: British museum 100
so many years have passed since you began teaching history at Stockholm university. It is celebrated in the spring with a series of lectures where steaming new research on the history of Stockholm is presented. The site is the ABF-house, for applications, see www.historia.su.se.
