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"Day
is finally breaking. We see land - we see America!
I seem to understand the feeling of Columbus when
he saw before him the hoped-for western land."(1)
This was the joy of one Swedish immigrant as he
arrived in America in 1858. Many thousands more
would share his excitement as they landed in New
York in hopes of a better future in the New World.
Swedish immigration reached its peak in the late
19th century, but these Swedes were by no means
the first from their country to arrive in America.
The Swedes, along with the English and the Dutch,
were among the first to attempt colonization of
America in the 17th century. New Sweden was founded
on the west bank of the Delaware River in 1638.
The colony was short-lived, lasting only until 1655
before being conquered by the neighboring Dutch
of New Netherland, but it marks the first substantial
wave of Swedish immigration to America. The 17th
century Swedish colonists and the 19th century Swedish
immigrants have something in common; they both left
their homeland in search of new opportunities for
prosperity. Economic gain was the foremost reason
that both sets of immigrants left their homeland.
The New Swedish colonists pursued economic gain
through trade, and the 19th century immigrants sought
economic gain through homesteads and higher factory
wages. The economic goals of the immigrants dictated
their settlement patterns. Those who came in search
of land tended to settle in the Mid-West on homesteads
attained from the government or from the railroads,
and those who sought higher wages settled in the
industrial cities with high demands for labor. This
essay examines the Swedes of New Sweden and the
Swedes of the 19th and early 20th centuries in order
to explore the reasons why they came to America
and how those reasons dictated their settlement
patterns.
The colony of New
Sweden came into existence in order to help Sweden
stimulate trade in non-European areas. For this
reason a Swedish colony was also created on the
Gold Coast of Africa, and ironically it too was
conquered by the Dutch. In 1624, the King of Sweden
assigned William Usselinx, founder of the Dutch
East India Company, to create a Swedish trading
company. With the Thirty Years War raging in Europe,
the company struggled to gain capital. Samuel Blommaert,
a merchant from Amsterdam who was involved with
New Netherland, suggested that a colony in America
could help stimulate trade. In The Rise and Fall
of New Sweden, Stellen Dahlgren and Hanz Norman
state that "It was a combination of the desire to
expand trade into new markets, and Dutch experience
that stimulated the start of the New Sweden Company."(2)
It was apparent that New Sweden was made possible
because of help from the Dutch. This made the Dutch
believe that the colony was essentially theirs,
foreshadowing the eventual Dutch takeover.
A region of land near
the Delaware River was acquired from Native Americans
by a series of land transactions, and the first
colonists of New Sweden arrived in 1638. Half of
the colonists were Swedish and half were Dutch.
These twenty men protected the colony, which was
not difficult because the nearby Native Americans
were friendly. They also hunted, fished, attempted
to grow crops, built structures and made contacts
with merchants in other colonies. The second shipload
of colonists did not arrive for over two years.
When the ship returned to Sweden, it took an equal
number of original colonists back, so the colonial
population remained the same. A shipload of new
colonists arrived in 1641, helping the colony expand
in acreage and development. Trade flourished, houses,
a windmill, and a church were built, and crops thrived.
Despite the new developments, the colony began to
see a decline in the late 1640s because of the disbursement
of the small population. In 1647 there were only
183 colonists. Ships arrived less frequently and
the colony became more vulnerable to the Dutch.
A mutiny broke out between the colonists and their
leader, Johan Printz, forcing Printz to leave in
1653. The new leader, Johan Rising, helped the colony
get back on its feet. Fort Casimir was taken from
the Dutch, and the Dutch living in New Sweden were
persuaded to sign loyalty oaths. The colony seemed
to prosper once again, however, during the winter
of 1655 a crop failure demoralized many of the colonists.
With little hope of relief from Sweden, the colonists
wanted to leave. The Dutch of New Netherland decided
to take advantage of New Sweden's bad luck and made
their move to take control of the colony. A Dutch
army invaded New Sweden on August 27, 1655, and
took the New Swedish Fort Trinity peacefully. Remaining
in the fort for several weeks, they ravaged the
colony while waiting for the Swedes to surrender,
which they finally did on September 15, 1655. Only
one death occurred during the takeover. Although
the Swedish colony did not persevere, a small group
of Swedish colonists did. This colony marked the
beginning of the Swedish presence in America.
Over 300 people remained
in New Sweden after the Dutch took control. The
population was further augmented by 100 Finns who
arrived on the ship Mercurius in 1656. Adjusting
for natural increase and the Finnish arrival, the
population of the former Swedish colony reached
between 500 and 600 by the time of the British takeover
in 1664.(3) Despite the influx of British
colonists and Quakers, the Swedes and Finns that
remained in New Sweden were able to maintain their
ethnic identity. The Swedes retained their language
and Lutheran beliefs, allowing their culture to
persist among the growing population of English
immigrants. The Swedes eventually intermarried and
dispersed, causing a decline of their identity and
presence in America that would not be fully restored
until the mass immigration of Swedes in the 19th
century.
The 17th century
Swedes and the 19th century Swedes had many differences,
one difference being that the 19th century Swedes
immigrated to a place where the English language
was already established. Carl Johan Hoflund, who
emigrated from Sweden in 1850, recognized this quickly;
"When we came into port we began to realize that
we were in a country where our language was no good
to us."(4) The 19th century Swedish immigrants
were pressured to learn English upon arrival, where
the 17th century Swedes had isolated themselves
making it possible to maintain their language, and
consequently, their identity. Although there were
differences in the nature of the two movements,
one thing remained the same; their desire to take
advantage of what America had to offer for economical
advancement.
There were a number
of "push" and "pull" factors that led Swedes to
the United States. It has already been mentioned
that economic issues attracted Swedish immigration,
but the specifics are more complex. There were a
number of reasons why the Swedes were looking for
new economic opportunities in America, and to a
lesser extent, Canada and Australia. There were
also significant religious and political motivations
behind their immigration, but they were not as powerful
as the economic factors. One of the first factors
that stimulated immigration from Sweden was overpopulation.
The early 19th century brought an era of peace to
Sweden. Peacetime combined with the introduction
of the potato and the smallpox vaccine led to a
lower death rate and increased population growth.
Overpopulation worsened an already problematic lack
of fertile agricultural land, which hurt small farmers
putting their farmhands out of work. The poor agricultural
class grew rapidly, leaving them the option of migrating
to industrial centers within the country, or leaving
the country altogether. The crop failures that existed
between 1866 and 1888 were a direct factor in the
first wave of mass immigration to America between
1888 and 1899.(5) Shrinking of agricultural
land and the threat of continued crop failure created
fear among the rural Swedes and prompted them to
move to the United States where land was plentiful.
The hope of increased
economic opportunity was the central factor in Swedish
immigration, but there were less significant factors
that played a part as well. Religious intolerance,
class disparity, and politics indirectly induced
emigration. The Lutheran church dominated the religious
sphere of Sweden. People could be fined, exiled,
or arrested for conducting non-sanctioned services.
In 1858, all religions were deemed equal in Sweden,
but non-Lutherans were still pressured by the established
church. This pressure alone rarely caused people
to emigrate, it was usually combined with the need
for greater economic opportunities, but there were
some instances where Swedes were driven from their
country solely because of religious intolerance.
The settlement at Bishop Hill, Illinois is a good
example of Swedish immigration due to religious
persecution. This group, led by Erik Jansson, founded
the Bishop Hill settlement in 1846. Their belief
in religious simplicity and the Bible being the
only true book of God angered the Lutheran Church
leading to the imprisonment of Jansson. The small
group pulled their resources and immigrated to the
United States where they were allowed freedom to
practice their religion. The colony gained over
1,000 immigrants within a year and became a destination
for future Swedish immigrants.
In addition to the
push-factors for emigration from Sweden, there were
a number of American pull-factors. Land, higher
wages, and availability of jobs were the biggest
pull factors, but the discovery of gold and assisted
passage also played a role. The availability of
cheap, arable land west of the Mississippi had more
appeal to immigrants than any other factor. The
Homestead Act of 1862 made the lands of the west
available to anyone who was willing to live and
work the land for five years. Even before the Homestead
Act, western land could be obtained at a low cost.
In 1841, Congress passed the Pre-Emption Act that
allowed settlers to purchase land at $1.25 an acre.(6)
Land was also available from the railroad companies.
Congress allotted railroad companies huge tracts
of land that were in excess of what they needed.
Any land that went unused was sold for about $2.50
per acre.(7) The availability of Homestead
land coincided with the largest movement of Swedes
to America; from the late 1860s to 1890.
In the 1890s, the
reasoning behind Swedish immigration began to change.
The homesteading of American prairie farmland was
nearing completion, so Swedish farmers were less
likely to immigrate. Emigration shifted to an urban
movement of Swedes in search of jobs. American wages
were higher, pulling Swedish craftsmen and factory
workers to industrial cities. Swedish immigration
near the turn of the century had changed from the
mass immigration of rural farmers to urbanites in
search of industrial jobs. By settling in industrial
centers instead of the Mid-West homesteads, the
Swedes became more dispersed throughout America.
The California Gold
Rush and assisted passage, also known as contract
labor, had small, yet significant roles in pulling
Swedish immigrants to America. The first decade
of the Gold Rush showed a significant rise of Swedes
in California, from 162 in 1850, to 1,405 in 1860.
The Gold Rush itself drew only small numbers of
Swedes, but the event heightened the dream of opportunity
in America that was on the minds of immigrants for
decades to come. Contract labor also played a small
role in early immigration from Sweden. Within these
contracts, the travel expenses of the immigrant
were paid upfront by the employer. The immigrant
then had to pay back the expenses by working for
the employer. This was not a common practice among
Swedes, and was forbidden in Sweden, but still it
happened on occasions. Most notable was the export
of Swedes from Smaland to Texas during the 1850s
and 1860s. These immigrants formed a Swedish community
near Austin.
Advertisement had
an indirect, but important role in helping Swedes
make the decision to emigrate. The combination of
organized promotion and letters from friends and
family already in America influenced the decisions
of many would be emigrants. Some state governments
in the Mid-West led propaganda campaigns through
their immigration boards in order to boost immigration.
English and American ship companies had much to
gain with increased passage from Europe to America,
so they employed agents in Sweden to advertise.
Through the disbursement of pamphlets and booklets,
these agents indirectly affected the minds of immigrants
by offering them a way to get to America. The steamships
advertised themselves as the means to the immigrant's
end.
By
Rickie Lazzerini
Historian
BA History
University of California, Santa Barbara
Index
of Historical Reviews
© 2005 Rickie Lazzerini,
All Rights Reserved
This page may be freely linked to but may not
be reproduced
in any form without prior written consent from
the author.
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