The following is an adapted version of an article written by Lázár Pap, originally published in Hungarian in Magyar Krónika.
America—the new world, the land of opportunity, the land of the free. In the 19th and 20th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians left their former lives behind to cross the Atlantic and try their luck Far Far Away, that is, ‘Beyond the Óperencia’, as Hungarian fairy tales go. In its series, Magyar Krónika looks at the meeting points of America and Hungary through the Hungarian diaspora living in the US. In this part, we will take a look at Sándor Bölöni Farkas’ life and travelogue, Journey to North America, published in 1834, which was the first to introduce the New World to the Hungarian public.
The United States was already a topic of interest for the Hungarian public during the reform era. Newspapers published articles with accounts from Hungarians who had travelled overseas, which painted a clearly positive picture of the young nation. Readers were presented with an appealing image of a modern country and its opportunities compared to their homeland. Hungarian public opinion viewed the US as the land of freedom, which played an important role in the decision of a significant number of Hungarian political émigrés to choose the United States as their new homeland.
The most influential travelogue was written by Sándor Bölöni Farkas, titled Journey to North America. The author was born in 1795 in the village of Bölön to a Unitarian family. He studied at the Unitarian boarding school in Kolozsvár (today’s Cluj-Napoca, Romania) from the age of ten, where he later continued with philosophy and theology. The talented young man with literary ambitions was taken under the wing of Gábor Döbrentei, editor of the journal Erdélyi Muzéum, as well as language reformer Ferenc Kazinczy. He also received financial support from Baron Miklós Wesselényi, with whom he formed a close friendship.
‘The United States was already a topic of interest for the Hungarian public during the reform era’
Meanwhile, he began studying law and took on an honorary clerkship at the Chief Chancellery in Kolozsvár. At the same time, he wrote for the Erdélyi Muzéum and translated Schiller’s drama Don Carlos and Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. He took up a position as a civil servant, which provided him with a stable but modest livelihood, although he was unable to break out of the world of Transylvanian administration. Citing his illnesses, he took a year and a half of leave and began to travel, visiting Paris, Brussels, London, Scotland, and finally America after his tours in Europe. Upon arriving in the New World, he admired the realization of liberal ideas but disapproved of the institution of slavery.
Based on his experiences, he wrote his work Journey to North America, which was eventually published in Transylvania in 1834, as censorship was less strict there. Young reformist politicians used his work as a kind of handbook, as it was the first Hungarian-language book to discuss the civil foundations of the United States. Hungarian politician Count István Széchenyi wrote a separate letter to thank Bölöni for his work:
‘Thanks be to the Almighty that this book has seen the light of day; its usefulness to our countrymen is immeasurable. The goodness with which it is filled is communicated so clearly, with such interest and such care, that the blessed seed which falls from it would sprout even in soil worse than ours. Counting the copy gifted to me among my most cherished treasures, I cannot cease to express my deepest gratitude for the publication of this work of public benefit, because, to my knowledge and inner conviction, no one has ever honoured the Hungarian homeland and kingdom with a more useful and beautiful gift than this.’
Shortly thereafter, the author was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. However, his work soon attracted the attention of the authorities and was banned. This is hardly surprising, given that Bölöni specifically discussed the social and political structure of the New World, which he sought to present as an example for Hungary, a country based on feudal traditions.
‘The author reported on America with romantic enthusiasm and bias, celebrating the triumph of civilization and equality’
‘For sixty years now, the eyes of Europe and humanity have been fixed on America. After centuries of fighting for freedom against oppression in the Old World, both in principle and on the battlefield, and after a thousand trials and disappointments, it finally surrendered in weary doubt, but in its languid bitterness it turned its eyes to America, turning all its attention to the people whom fate seemed to have chosen to decide the famous question: “Are man and human societies capable of establishing, through their own deliberations and free choices, a government that is good and makes the people happy? Or whether man’s destiny is to remain forever dependent on history, force, and arbitrariness in his political situation?”’ Bölöni wrote, somewhat pathetically from today’s perspective, upon his arrival.
In his work, he dealt in detail with the contemporary political system, education, and the religious situation, and also published a Hungarian translation of the American Declaration of Independence. The author reported on America with romantic enthusiasm and bias, celebrating the triumph of civilization and equality, but his image was shattered when he learned about the institution of slavery. Bölöni wrote the following when he saw an advertisement offering two slaves for sale: ‘It was as if an icy hand had passed over my heart when I read this! “So we have arrived in a country of slaves!” I sighed in sorrow.’ He noted that there were significant debates about slavery, but emphasized: ‘The great contradiction between the sublime theory and this shameful practice was incomprehensible to me.’
The impact of Journey to North America can be seen not only in the spread of the ideas of the bourgeoisie and liberalism, but also in the fact that the work inspired some of the reformers, including Ferenc Pulszky, Ágoston Trefort, László Szalay, and Bertalan Szemere, to travel to the New World. Among them, Ferenc Pulszky later visited America as a member of the Kossuth emigration.
Read the previous parts of the series below:
Click here to read the original article.
