emigration

Emigration

A lot of people ask me why the Vencatos emigrated to south America around 1880. I found no specific documents about this but I can presume that the reason is not different from that it has induced other veneti (people coming from Veneto region) to emigrate in that period.

In 1869 in Brazil a law was approved which freed from the slavery the slaves's sons who were born after 1870. The definitive abolition of the slavery happened in 1889.

That forced "fazenderos" (the great Brazilian land owners) to search new labour abroad for the cultivations of the coffee.Therefore, since 1875, the great emigration to Brazil and Argentina began ,initially above all of the veneti . In a few words, the reasons that induced millions of Italians to emigrate, can be essentially summarized in:

• • a situation of great poverty of the rural population, often reduced to the hunger

  • a decrease of the demand for labour in Germany and Austria-Hungary (first countries of European emigration for the Italians)

  • the propaganda exercised from the agents of emigration (employees of the Italian, Brazilian and Argentine companies of sailing), they painted the America like the country of the "abundance", selling the illusion of one new and better life

  • political facilitations as the free travel and the promise of a house in the destination country offer to those who decided to emigrate