Excerpts from the History of Peasant Communities in the Polish Lands under Partitions in the Light of the American Press at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

The American press at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries wrote extensively about the situation of Polish peasants under partitions. In the pages of press articles, journalists described the legal and economic situation of peasants in the territories of the three partitions, focusing on the nature of peasant serfdom and the attitude of Polish landowners towards the peasantry. Considerable attention was also given to events that led to a general change in the status of the peasant population. Successive American press titles presented and evaluated the process of enfranchisement, conducted on different terms by each of the partitioners. Examples of peasant revolts against the domestic nobility, partitioning powers and the very processes of Russification and Germanisation were also of interest to the press. However, the groundbreaking events at the beginning of the 20th century, such as the Russian Revolution of 1905 and World War I, were given the greatest amount of detail. These events were understood as crucial for the change in the legal and economic situation as well as the gradual formation of national consciousness among Polish peasants. The analysis of issues discussed in the press at the turn of the century makes it possible to characterise American society of that period as a community concerned with the fate of the socially oppressed peasant class and even expressing sympathy towards its representatives.