Slovak Americans

Historical Background

The Slovak Republic officially became an independent state on January 1, 1993. The Slovak Republic is surrounded by Hungary and Austria to the south, Poland and the Czech Republic to the north and the Ukraine to the east. Before independence, Slovakia, as it was known before (the terms will be used interchangeably here), had been part of Czechoslovakia since 1981, with a brief period of independence during World War II. Before becoming part of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak Republic was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, under the direct control of Hungary.

Although much of the country was officially called Upper Hungary, Slovaks themselves referred to their land as Slovakia and struggled to resist Magyarization (to become Hungarian) by maintaining their native language and culture. When they came to the United States, they brought this struggle for ethnic identity with them.

The first large numbers of Slovaks came to the United States in the 1870s and 1880s. Slovaks began to immigrate to the United States for three primary reasons: the exponential population growth in Slovakia, the lack of land, and the lack of industrialization. After the abolition of serfdom in 1848, many Slovak peasants found themselves without land to farm. Instead, the land became even more concentrated within the hands of a few gentry. At the same time, Slovakia was dealing with the same population growth in the 19th century that confronted the rest of Europe. But unlike Western Europe, which also was in the midst of industrialization in the 19th century, Slovakia, like much of the Hungarian part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, was still an agricultural society. As a result, Slovak peasants filled the few cities, but found no work. These landless unemployed former farmers began to emigrate to neighboring countries, and eventually to the United States.

In 1869, agents from the coal mines in Illinois and Pennsylvania appeared in Hungary and Slovakia proclaiming the high salaries and good life that could be found in the United States. Many Slovaks, desperate for income, began to make the journey to the United States. The first waves of Slovak immigrants to the United States came from the eastern parts of the country, from counties such as Saris, Zemplin, Spis, and Abov. The first Slovak community that developed in the United States came from Saris and settled in Streator, Illinois, near the coal mines. Central and western Slovakia also had countrypeople emigrating to the United States but not until after 1900 and not as many as came from the eastern parts of the country.

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