In the previous century a large portion of the smallest of the Slavonic 
nations left their German homeland and migrated to three distant 
continents. George R. Nielsen, in this revised edition of his classic 
study of Wendish migration, carefully describes the details of 
immigration and weighs the possible explanations for the exodus, 
the settlement, and acculturation patterns that resulted.

    The earliest emigrants traveled to Australia, but despite efforts to 
encourage unity, they were unsuccessful, and no single, large 
Wendish settlement was formed. The largest number migrated to 
Texas, where at Serbin, under the leadership of pastor Jan Kilian, 
they formed a Wendish community, retaining their own language in 
church, school, and home. Local agricultural conditions, however, 
proved too poor to sustain many people, so the Wends of Texas also 
scattered and eventually lost most of their ethnic distinctiveness. 
Smaller numbers of Wends migrated to Canada, Nebraska, and 
South Africa. These Wends generally settled among Germans and 
were absorbed by the local German communities.

    This work promises to continue as the standard reference on the 
overseas resettlement of these distinctive people.

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GEORGE R. NIELSEN taught from 1959 to 1997 at Concordia 
College in River Forest, Illinois. His research and publications have 
concentrated on ethnic and frontier history.



What people are saying about this book

"One of the many contributions that Nielsen makes in the book is 
to demonstrate the complexity of the motives impelling a group of 
people to immigrate to another land. . . . Nielsen has carefully 
researched a complex topic, and his book will aid in filling in the 
mosaic of American and Australian immigration."—Southwestern 
Historical Quarterly