Tactics of Evasion
The survival strategies of vagrants and day labourers in eighteenth and nineteenth century rural Iceland
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7557/4.5547Keywords:
Árni Sveinsson, vagrancy, compulsory service, labour coercion, mobility, social capital, passports, the labouring poor, microhistory, survival strategiesAbstract
Legal restrictions on vagrancy and day labour in Iceland became increasingly strict in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, culminating with a decree in 1783 which prohibited any form of masterless labour and proscribed compulsory service on a yearly basis for most people over the age of eighteen. Despite strict regulations and the strenuous efforts of various state officials to uproot the problem, vagrancy and day labour remained relatively common and publicly acknowledged throughout the nineteenth century, thus highlighting the contrast between normative prescription (such as law) and everyday life and the ambiguity of power relations in rural Iceland, underscoring their contested nature. This article discusses how vagrants and illegal day labourers in Iceland in the early nineteenth century found ways to evade the authorities and make a living for themselves on the margins of society. It stresses the agency of the working poor and highlights some of the survival strategies employed, including passport fraud, the careful exploitation of cultural notions of hospitality and methods of earning social capital by providing useful services. The article builds on the case of a travelling healer and vagrant named Árni Sveinsson who was found guilty of vagrancy, forgery and quackery in 1821. His trial provides rare insights into the tactics employed by those on the margins of the law to get around undetected.
Metrics
References
Ahearn, Laura, ‘Language and agency’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 30 (2001), 109–37. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.109 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.109
Ågren, Maria, ‘Introduction’, in Making a Living, Making a Difference: Gender and Work in Early Modern European Society, ed. by Maria Ågren (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240615.003.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240615.003.0001
Ågren, Maria, (ed.), Making a Living, Making a Difference: Gender and Work in Early Modern European Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240615.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240615.001.0001
Björnsson, Sigurður, ‘Um hússtjórnina á Íslandi’, Búnaðarrit Suðuramtsins húss- og bússtjórnarfélags, 1 (1839), 94–138.
Blöndal, Lárus H. and Vilmundur Jónsson, Læknar á Íslandi I (Reykjavík: Læknafélag Íslands, 1970).
Boulton, Jeremy, ‘“It is extreme necessity that makes me do this”: Some “survival strategies” of pauper households in London’s West End during the early eighteenth century’, International Review of Social History, 45 (2000), 47‒69. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000115287 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000115287
Braddick, Michael J. and John Walter, ‘Introduction: Grids of power: Order, hierarchy and subordination in early modern society’, in Negotiating Power in Early Modern Society: Order, Hierarchy and Subordination in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Michael J. Braddick and John Walter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 1–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511660207.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511660207.001
de Certeau, Michel, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
De Vito, Christian G., Juliane Schiel, and Matthias van Rossum, ‘From bondage to precariousness? New perspectives on labor and social history’, Journal of Social History shz057 (2020), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shz057 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shz057
De Vito, Christian G., ‘History without scale: The micro-spatial perspective’, Past & Present, 242, Supplement 14 (2019), 359–360. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtz048 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtz048
De Vito, Christian G., ‘Labour flexibility and labour precariousness as conceptual tools for the historical study of the interactions among labour relations’, in On the Road to Global Labour History: A Festschrift for Marcel van der Linden, ed. by Karl Heinz Roth (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 219–40. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004336391_013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004336391_013
Eccles, Audrey, Vagrancy in Law and Practice under the Old Poor Law (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315548531 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315548531
Fontaine, Laurence and Jürgen Schlumbohm, ‘Household strategies for survival: An introduction’, International Review of Social History, 45 (2000), 1‒17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000115263 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000115263
Fumerton, Patricia, Unsettled: The Culture of Mobility and the Working Poor in Early Modern England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
Griffiths, Paul, ‘Masterless young people in Norwich, 1560–1645’, in The Experience of Authority in Early Modern England, ed. by Paul Griffiths, Adam Fox, and Steve Hindle (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996), 146–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24834-6_6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24834-6_6
Groebner, Valentin, Who Are You? Indentification, Deception and Surveillance in Early Modern Europe (New York: Zone Books, 2007).
Guðjónsson, Magnús, ‘Gaulverjabær í Flóa’, Kirkjuritið, 26 (1960), 263–75.
Gunnarsson, Gísli, Monopoly Trade and Economic Stagnation: Studies in the Foreign Trade of Iceland, 1602–1787 (Lund: Ekonomisk-historiska föreningen i Lund, 1983).
Gunnlaugsson, Emil, ‘Sína leið siglir hver. Vegabréfa- og passakerfið á Íslandi á 18. og 19. öld’ (report, National Archives of Iceland, 2019). Online: https://heimildir.is/files/Vegabref_grein.pdf (accessed 22 July 2020)
Gunnlaugsson, Gísli Á., ‘Family and Household in Iceland 1801–1930: Studies in the Relationship Between Demographic and Socio-Economic Development, Social Legislation and Family and Household Structures’ (doctoral thesis, Uppsala Universitet, 1988).
Gunnlaugsson, Gísli Á., ‘Fattigvården på Island under 1700-talet’, in Oppdaginga av fattigdomen: Sosial lovgivning i Norden på 1700-talet (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1983), 187–215.
Gunnlaugsson, Gísli Á., ‘The poor laws and the family in 19th century Iceland’, in The Nordic Family: Perspectives on Family Research, ed. by John Rogers and Hans Norman (Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 1985), 16–42.
Gustafsson, Harald, Mellan kung och allmoge: Ämbetsmän, beslutsprocess och inflytande på 1700-talets Island (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1985).
Guttormsson, Loftur, ‘Il servizio come istituzione sociale in Islandia e nei paisi nordici’, Quaderni storici, 68 (1988), 355–79.
Guttormsson, Loftur, ‘Population, households and fisheries in the parish of Hvalsnes, southwestern Iceland, 1750‒1850’, Acta Borealia, 28 (2011), 142‒66. https://doi.org/10.1080/08003831.2011.626935 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08003831.2011.626935
Guttormsson, Loftur, Childhood, Youth and Upbringing in the Age of Absolutism: An Exercise in Socio-Demographic Analysis (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2017)
Hálfdanarson, Guðmundur, ‘Social distinctions and national unity: On politics of nationalism in nineteenth-century Iceland’, History of European Ideas, 21 (1995), 763–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-6599(95)00068-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-6599(95)00068-2
Heinsen, Johan, ‘Straffefanger på fri fod i 1700-tallets Sjælland’, Siden Saxo, 34 (2017), 2‒11.
Heinsen, Johan, ‘Ind og ud af slaverierne: Den dansk-norske stats straffearbejdere i tidligt modern tid’, Arbeiderhistorie, 22 (2018), 11–31. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2387-5879-2018-01-02 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2387-5879-2018-01-02
Hitchcock, Tim, Adam Crymble, and Louise Falcini, ‘Loose, idle and disorderly: Vagrant removal in late eighteenth-century Middlesex’, Social History, 39 (2014), 509‒27. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2014.975943 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2014.975943
Hooper,Robert, A New Medical Dictionary (Philadelphia: M. Carey and sons, 1817).
Hufton, Olwen, The Poor of Eighteenth Century France 1750‒1789 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974).
Innes, Joanne, Steven King, and Anne Winter, ‘Introduction: Settlement and belonging in Europe, 1500–1930s: Structures, negotiations and experiences’, in Migration, Settlement and Belonging in Europe, 1500–1930s: Comparative Perspectives, ed. by Steven King and Anne Winter (Oxford: Berghahn, 2013), 1–28.
Ísberg, Jón Ó., Líf og lækningar: Íslensk heilbrigðissaga (Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 2005).
Johnsson, Theresa, ‘Vårt fredliga samhälle: “Lösdriveri” och försvarslöshet i Sverige under 1830-talet’ (doctoral thesis, Uppsala Universitet, 2016).
Jón Óskar, Sölvi Helgason: Listamaður á hrakningi. Heimildasaga (Reykjavík: Ísafold, 1984).
Jónsson, Guðmundur, ‘Institutional change in Icelandic agriculture, 1780–1940’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, 41 (1993), 101–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.1993.10415863 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.1993.10415863
Jónsson, Jón, Á mörkum mennskunnar: Viðhorf til förufólks í sögnum og samfélagi (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2018).
Jörundsdóttir, Sigríður H., ‘Neyðarástand. Sýslumenn og sakamenn á harðindatímum 1755–1759’ (master’s thesis, University of Iceland, 2004).
Jörundsdóttir, Sigríður H., and Halldóra Kristinsdóttir, Utangarðs? Ferðalag til fortíðar (Reykjavík: Ugla, 2015).
Jütte, Robert, Poverty and Deviance in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
Kamp, Jeannette, and Matthias van Rossum, ‘Introduction: Leaving work across the world’, Desertion in the Early Modern World. A Comparative History, ed. by Matthias van Rossum and Jeannette Kamp (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), 3–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474292931.0007 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474292931.0007
Kofoed, Nina J., ‘Authorities who care: The Lutheran doctrine of the three estates in Danish legal development from the Reformation to absolutism’, Scandinavian Journal of History, 44 (2019), 430–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2018.1562965 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2018.1562965
Konráðsson, Gísli, Húnvetninga saga, ed. and compiled by Jón Torfason (Reykjavík: Mál og mynd, 1998).
Krogh, Tyge, Staten og de besiddelsesløse på landet 1500–1800 (Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag, 1987).
Landsyfirréttardómar og hæstaréttardómar í íslenzkum málum, 11 vols (Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 1916–1986).
Landsnefndin fyrri 1770‒1771 I: Bréf frá almenningi / Den islandske landkommission I: Breve fra almuen, ed. by Hrefna Róbertsdóttir and Jóhanna Þ. Guðmundsdóttir (Reykjavík: Þjóðskjalasafn Íslands, 2016).
Leifsson, Yngvi, ‘Flökkufólk. Líf og ferðir flökkufólks á Norðurlandi 1783–1816’ (master’s thesis, University of Iceland, 2011).
Leifsson, Yngvi, Með álfum: Ævisaga flökkukonunnar Ingiríðar Eiríksdóttur frá Haga í Þingeyjarsýslu 1777‒1857 (Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 2015).
Lindström, Jonas, ‘Labouring poor in early modern Sweden? Crofters and lodgers in Västmanland in the 17th century’, Scandinavian Journal of History, 44 (2019), 403‒29. https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2018.1532926 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2018.1532926
Lindström, Dag, Rosemarie Fiebranz, Jonas Lindström, Jan Mispelaere, and Göran Rydén, ‘Working together’, in Making a Living, Making a Difference: Gender and Work in Early Modern European Society, ed. by Maria Ågren (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 57–79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240615.003.0003
Lis, Catharina, and Hugo Soly, Worthy Efforts: Attitudes to Work and Workers in Pre-Industrial Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2012). https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004232778 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004232778
Lovsamling for Island, ed. by Oddgeir Stephensen and Jón Sigurðsson, 23 vols (København: Höst, 1853–1889).
Lundh, Christer, ‘The social mobility of servants in rural Sweden, 1740–1894’, Continuity and Change, 14 (1999), 57–89. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416099003264 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416099003264
Lövgren, Anna-Brita, Staten och folk på väg: Pass i Sverige från Gustav Vasas tid till 1860 (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2018).
Magnússon, Magnús S., Iceland in Transition: Labour and Socio-Economic Change Before 1940 (Lund: Ekonomisk-historiska föreningen i Lund, 1985).
Magnússon, Sigurður G., Wasteland with Words: A Social History of Iceland (London: Reaktion, 2010).
Magnússon, Sigurður G., and István M. Szijártó, What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 2013). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203500637 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203500637
Maza, Sarah C., Servants and Masters in 18th-Century France: The Uses of Loyalty (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400856077
Moring, Beatrice, ‘Nordic family patterns and the north-west European household system’, Continuity and Change, 18 (2003), 77–109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416003004508 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416003004508
Negotiating Power in Early Modern Society: Order, Hierarchy and Subordination in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Michael J. Braddick and John Walter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511660207 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511660207
Ocobock, Paul, ‘Introduction: Vagrancy and homelessness in global and historical perspective’, in Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective, ed. by A. L. Beier and Paul Ocobock (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008), 1–34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1rfsq2g.4
Ortner, Sherry B., Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power and the Acting Subject (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006). https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388456 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11hppcg
Rio, Alice, ‘“Half-free” categories in the early middle ages: Fine status distinctions before professional lawyers’, Legalism: Rules and Categories, ed. by Paul Dresch and Judith Scheele (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 129–52. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198753810.003.0006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198753810.003.0006
Róbertsdóttir, Hrefna, Wool and Society: Manufacturing Policy, Economic Thought and Local Production in 18th-Century Iceland (Göteborg: Makadam, 2008).
Róbertsdóttir, Hrefna, ‘Manufacturing in the 18th century: Production, consumption and relative usefulness in Iceland’s Old Society’, Scandinavian Journal of History, 39 (2014), 49–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2013.856813 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2013.856813
Sandmo, Erling, ‘Æren og ærekrenkelsen’, in Normer og sosial kontroll i Norden ca 1550–1850: Domstolene i samspill med lokalsamfunnet. Det 22. Nordiske historikermøte. Oslo 13.–18. august 1994. Rapport II, ed. by Kåre Tønnesson (Oslo: Den norske historiske forening, 1994), 81–86.
Sarti, Raffaella, ‘Criados, servi, domestiques, gesinde, servants: For a comparative history of domestic service in Europe (16th to 19th centuries), Obradoiro de Historia Moderna, 16 (2007), 9‒39.
Scates, Bruce, ‘The case of Clarinna Stringer: Strategic options and the household economy in late nineteenth-century Australia’, in Rebellious Families: Household Strategies and Collective Action in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ed. by Jan Kok (New York: Berghahn, 2002), 59‒78. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1btbwb6.8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1btbwb6.8
Schmidt, Ariadne, ‘Survival strategies of widows and their families in early modern Holland, c. 1580‒1750’, History of the Family 12 (2007), 268‒81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hisfam.2007.12.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hisfam.2007.12.003
Shore, Heather, ‘Crime, criminal networks and the survival strategies of the poor in early eighteenth-century London’, in The Poor in England 1700‒1850: An Economy of Makeshifts, ed. by Steven King and Alannah Tomkins (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), 137‒65. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137869.00011 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137869.00011
Sigmundsson, Sigmundur, ‘Til hvörs eru kóngsbréfin um betlara og lausamenn, okur og práng?’, Margvíslegt gaman og alvara, 1 (1798), 53–69.
Skaftáreldar 1783–1784: Ritgerðir og heimildir, ed. by Gísi Ágúst Gunnlaugsson et al. (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1984).
Steedman, Carolyn, Master and Servant: Love and Labour in the English Industrial Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618949 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618949
Steffensen, Jón, ‘Alþýðulækningar’, Íslensk þjóðmenning VII: Alþýðuvísindi, ed. by Frosti F. Jóhannsson (Reykjavík: Þjóðsaga, 1990), 103–192.
Stephensen, Magnús, Ræður Hjálmars á Bjargi fyrir börnum sínum um fremd, kosti og annmarka allra stétta og um þeirra almennustu gjöld og tekjur (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 1999 [1820]).
Stuart, Kathy, Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts: Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496967 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496967
Sunde, Jørn Ø., ‘“Lade og ørkesløse betlere”: Fattigforordninga for Bergens stift av 1755 i eit idéhistorisk perspektiv’, in Fattigfolk i Bergens stift 1755–2005, ed. by Yngve Nedrebø (Førde: Selja, 2005), 15–33.
Ulbricht, Otto, ‘The world of a beggar around 1775: Johann Gottfried Kästner’, Central European History, 27 (1994), 153–84. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938900010001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938900010001
Uppenberg, Carolina, ‘The servant institution during the Swedish agrarian revolution: The political economy of subservience’, in Servants in Rural Europe 1400–1900, ed. by Jane Whittle (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017), 167–82.
Uppenberg, Carolina, I husbondens bröd och arbete: Kön, makt och kontrakt i det svenska tjänstefolkssystemet 1730–1860 (Göteborg: Göteborgs Universitet, 2018).
Vilhelmsson, Vilhelm, Sjálfstætt fólk: Vistarband og íslenskt samfélag á 19. öld (Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 2017).
Vilhelmsson, Vilhelm, ‘Siðspillandi lögbrot. Páll Briem og leysing vistarbands’, in Hugmyndaheimur Páls Briem ed. by Ragnheiður Kristjánsdóttir and Sverrir Jakobsson (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2020), 165–93.
Wassholm, Johanna, and Anna Sundelin, ‘Emotions, trading practices and communication in transnational itinerant trade: Encounters between “rucksack Russians” and their customers in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Finland’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, 66 (2018), 132–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2018.1466725 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2018.1466725
Weevers, Marian H. A. C., Margo de Koster, and Catrien C. J. H. Bijleveld, ‘Swept up from the streets or nowhere else to go? The journeys of Dutch female beggars and vagrants to the Oegstgeest state labor institution in the late nineteenth century’, Journal of Social History, 46 (2012), 416–29. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shs101 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shs101
Whittle, Jane, ‘Introduction: Servants in the economy and society of rural Europe’, in Servants in Rural Europe 1400‒1900, ed. by Jane Whittle (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017), 1–18.
Winter, Anne, ‘“Vagrancy” as an adaptive strategy: The duchy of Brabant, 1767‒1776’, International Review of Social History, 49 (2004), 249‒77. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859004001518 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859004001518
Witze, Alexandra, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of Laki, the Volcano that Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark (London: Profile Books, 2014).
Östholm, Hanna, and Cristina Prytz, ‘Less than ideal? Making a living before and outside marriage’, in Making a Living, Making a Difference: Gender and Work in Early Modern European Society, ed. by Maria Ågren (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 103–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240615.003.0005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240615.003.0005
Østhus, Hanne, ‘Contested Authority: Master and servant in Copenhagen and Christiania 1750–1850’ (doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2013).
Østhus, Hanne, ‘Servants in rural Norway c. 1650–1800’, in Servants in Rural Europe 1400–1900, ed. by Jane Whittle (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017), 113–30.
Østhus, Hanne, ‘Tvunget til tjeneste? Tjenesteplikten i Danmark-Norge på 1700-tallet og begynnelsen av 1800-tallet’, Arbetarhistoria, 41 (2017), 26–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2387-5879-2018-01-03
Þorsteinsdóttir, Þórunn, ‘Lestir lausamennsku og lifnaður við sjávarsíðuna. Afbrot og siðferði á Akureyri 1810–1840’ (bachelor’s thesis, University of Iceland, 2017).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Vilhelm Vilhelmsson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
