As the 19th century was coming to an end the Icelanders found themselves at crossroads. For centuries, the Nation had been divided into two classes, farmers and workers, but now this simple social structure was changing.
The farmer is the pillar?
The towns were upsetting society. Here rich and poor walked the streets as equals, one was not necessarily a master of the other. The law, which stated one without farmland was to commit himself to work for a farmer, did not apply in towns. Here everybody was free to work at whatever was available, no law said one had to be another´s servant.
There were many who considered this freedom in towns as a threat that would eventually break the Nation. The farming culture had become like a religion, the poet Jónas Hallgrímsson acknowledged this in one of his poem in 1840, “the farmer is the pillar of the farm, the farm is the pillar on what live depends, for that he must be respected” was his message.
Rev. Benedikt Þórðarson warned at Althing in 1861 that if the law tying workers to farmers was abolished, it not only would cause the farmers to lose his workers; the free workers would not manage their freedom or resist temptations, they would pick up bad habits, idleness, and take to vagabondage and drinking. Labourers will demand higher salaries for their work and, as available work disappeared, workers would roam around the rural communities on social benefits as law stipulates.
The towns are a threat to the “system”
The work-freedom in towns was thus not only a threat to the farming community, but also to man’s morals. To become a valuable member of society, one needed to follow a certain path of development. No one was born into a particular class of society: a worker could become a farmer or a maid a housewife on a large farm. But to become pillars of a farm, one needed to learn the right ways, develop a special humbleness of the mind, and obedience to authorities only obtained at a farm managed by good farmers.
The towns undermined this point of view towards the end of the 19th Century, as well as old values which generations had respected for centuries. Growing populations in villages and towns were a threat to the “system” just as was emigration to America.
The above is based on research by Icelandic Historian Jón Hjaltason and his article “Íslendingar á krossgötum”. English version by Thor group.