New Sweden

New Sweden
Nya Sverige
1638–1655
Map of New Sweden ca. 1650
by Amandus Johnson
Status Swedish colony
Capital Fort Christina
Common languages Swedish, Finnish, Munsee, Unami
Religion Church of Sweden
King/Queen of Sweden  
• 1632–1654
Christina
• 1654–1660
Charles X Gustav
Governor  
• 1638
Peter Minuit
• 1638–1640
Måns Nilsson Kling
• 1640–1643
Peter Hollander Ridder
• 1643–1653
Johan Björnsson Printz
• 1653–1654
Johan Papegoja
• 1654–1655
Johan Risingh
Historical era Colonial period
• Established
1638
1655
1655
Currency Swedish riksdaler
Preceded by		Succeeded by
New Netherland
Susquehannock
New Netherland
Today part of  United States

New Sweden (Swedish: Nya Sverige; Finnish: Uusi Ruotsi; Latin: Nova Svecia) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in North America from 1638 to 1655,[1] established during the Thirty Years' War, when Sweden was a great power. New Sweden was part of Swedish colonization efforts in the Americas.

Settlements were established on both sides of the Delaware Valley in the present-day American Mid-Atlantic states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, often in places where Swedish traders had been visiting since about 1610.[2] Fort Christina, now part of Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement, named after the reigning Swedish monarch, the sole daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. Along with Swedes and Finns, a number of the settlers were Dutch. New Sweden was conquered by the Dutch Republic in 1655, during the Second Northern War, and incorporated into the Dutch colonies of New Netherlands.

History

By the middle of the 17th century, the Realm of Sweden had reached its greatest territorial extent and was one of the great powers of Europe. Sweden then included Finland and Estonia, along with parts of modern Russia, Poland, Germany, and Latvia, under King Gustavus Adolphus and later Christina, Queen of Sweden. The Swedes sought to expand their influence by creating an agricultural (tobacco) and fur-trading colony to circumvent French and English merchants.

The Swedish South Company was founded in 1626 with a mandate to establish colonies between Florida and Newfoundland for the purposes of trade, particularly along the Delaware River. Its charter included Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders led by directors of the New Sweden Company, including Samuel Blommaert.[3][4] The company sponsored 11 expeditions in 14 separate voyages (two did not survive) to Delaware between 1638 and 1655.

The first Swedish expedition to North America sailed from the port of Gothenburg in late 1637. It was organized and overseen by Clas Fleming, a Swedish Admiral from Finland. The Flemish Dutch Samuel Blommaert assisted the fitting-out and appointed Peter Minuit (the former Governor of New Amsterdam) to lead the expedition. The members of the expedition, aboard the ships Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel, sailed into Delaware Bay, which lay within the territory claimed by the Dutch, passing Cape May and Cape Henlopen in late March 1638,[5] and anchored at a rocky point on the Minquas Kill that is known today as Swedes' Landing on March 29, 1638. They built a fort on the present site of Wilmington, which they named Fort Christina, after Queen Christina of Sweden.[6]

The relative locations of New Netherland (magenta) and New Sweden (blue) in eastern North America. Modern-day U.S. state boundaries (and postal abbreviations) are shown.

In the following years, 600 Swedes and Finns, the latter group mainly Forest Finns from central Sweden, and also a number of Dutchmen, a few Germans, a Dane and at least one Estonian[7] in Swedish service, settled in the area. Peter Minuit was to become the first governor of the newly established colony of New Sweden. Having been the Director of the Dutch West India Company, and the predecessor of then-Director William Kieft, Minuit knew the status of the lands on either side of the Delaware River at that time. He knew that the Dutch had established deeds for the lands east of the river (New Jersey), but not for the lands to the west (Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania).

Minuit landed on the west bank of the river and gathered the sachems of the local Delaware tribe. Sachems of the Susquehannocks were also present. They held a conclave in his cabin on the Kalmar Nyckel, and he persuaded them to sign deeds he had prepared to solve any issue with the Dutch. The Swedes claimed the section purchased included the land on the west side of the South River from just below the Schuylkill, which today would mean Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and coastal Maryland. The Delaware sachem Mattahoon, who was a participant, later stated that only as much land as was contained within an area marked by "six trees" was actually purchased and the rest of the land occupied by the Swedes was stolen.[8]

Dutch Director Willem Kieft objected to the Swedes landing, but Minuit ignored him since he knew that the Dutch were militarily weak at the moment. Minuit completed Fort Christina in 1638, then sailed for Stockholm to bring the second group of settlers. He made a detour to the Caribbean to pick up a shipment of tobacco to sell in Europe to make the voyage profitable. However, Minuit died on this voyage during a hurricane at St. Christopher in the Caribbean.

The official duties of the governor of New Sweden were carried out by Lieutenant (promoted to Captain) Måns Nilsson Kling, until a new governor was selected and arrived from Sweden two years later.[9]

Under Johan Björnsson Printz, governor from 1643 to 1653, the company expanded along the river from Fort Christina, establishing Fort Nya Elfsborg on the east bank of the Delaware near present-day Salem, New Jersey and Fort Nya Gothenborg on Tinicum Island, to the immediate southwest of today's Philadelphia. He also built his manor house, The Printzhof, at Fort Nya Gothenborg. For a time, the Swedish colony prospered. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their victory in a war against the English in the Province of Maryland.[10] In May 1654, the Fort Casimir was captured from the Dutch by soldiers from New Sweden led by their governor, Johan Risingh. Fort Casimir was promptly renamed Fort Trinity (in Swedish, Trefaldigheten).

However, soon after Sweden opened the Second Northern War in the Baltic by attacking the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Dutch sent an armed squadron of ships under the Director-General Peter Stuyvesant to seize New Sweden. In the summer of 1655, the Dutch marched an army to the Delaware River, easily capturing Fort Trinity and Fort Christina. The Swedish settlement was formally incorporated into the Dutch New Netherland on September 15, 1655. Still, the Swedish and Finnish settlers were allowed local autonomy. They retained their own militia, religion, court, and lands.[11]

This lasted officially until the English conquest of the New Netherland was launched on June 24, 1664. The Duke of York sold what is today New Jersey to John Berkeley and George Carteret to become a proprietary colony, separate from the projected colony of New York. The invasion began on August 29, 1664, with the capture of New Amsterdam. It ended with the capture of Fort Casimir (New Castle, Delaware) in October. This took place at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.[12]

New Sweden continued to exist unofficially and some immigration and expansion had continued. The first settlement at Wicaco, a Swedish settlers' log blockhouse located below Society Hill, was built in present-day Philadelphia in 1669. It was later used as a church until about 1700, when Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church of Philadelphia was built on the site.[13] New Sweden officially came to an end when its land was included in William Penn's charter for Pennsylvania, on August 24, 1682.

Hoarkill, New Amstel, and Upland

The C. A. Nothnagle Log House in Gibbstown, New Jersey. Built in 1638, it is the oldest surviving house in what is today New Jersey.

The start of the Third Anglo-Dutch War resulted in the recapture of New Netherland by the Dutch in August 1673. The Dutch restored the status that pre-dated the English invasion, and codified it in the establishment of three counties in what had been New Sweden. They were Hoarkill County, which today is Sussex County, Delaware;[14] New Amstel County, which is today New Castle County, Delaware;[14] and Upland County, which was later partitioned between New Castle County, Delaware and the new Colony of Pennsylvania.[14] The three counties were created on September 12, 1673, the first two on the west shore of the Delaware River, and the third on both sides of the river.

The signing of the Treaty of Westminster of 1674 ended the Dutch effort, and required them to return all of New Netherland to the English, including the three counties they created. That handover took place on June 29, 1674.[15]

After taking stock, the English declared on November 11, 1674, that settlements on the west side of the Delaware River and Delaware Bay (in present-day Delaware and Pennsylvania) were to be dependent on the Colony of New York, including the three Counties.[16] This declaration was followed on November 11 by a new declaration that renamed New Amstel as New Castle. The other counties retained their Dutch names for the duration.[16]

The next step in the assimilation of New Sweden into New York was the extension of the Duke's laws into the region on September 22, 1676.[17] This was followed by the partition of some Upland Counties to conform to what would become the borders of Pennsylvania and Delaware, with most of the Delaware portion going to New Castle County, on November 12, 1678.[18] The remainder of Upland continued in place under the same name. On June 21, 1680, New Castle and Hoarkill Counties were partitioned to produce St. Jones County.[19]

On March 4, 1681, what had been the colony of New Sweden was formally partitioned into the colonies of Delaware and Pennsylvania. The border was established 12 miles north of New Castle, and the northern limit of Pennsylvania was set at 42 degrees north latitude. The eastern limit was the current border with New Jersey at the Delaware River, while the western limit was undefined.[20] Pennsylvania immediately started to reorganize the lands of the former New Sweden within the limits of Pennsylvania. In June 1681, Upland ceased to exist as the result of the reorganization of the Colony of Pennsylvania, with the Upland government becoming the government of Chester County, Pennsylvania.

On August 24, 1682, the Duke of York transferred the western Delaware River region, including modern-day Delaware, to William Penn, thus transferring Deale County and St. Jones County from New York to Delaware. St. Jones County was renamed as Kent County; Deale County was renamed Sussex County; New Castle County retained its name.[21]

Significance and legacy

US Postage stamp commemorating the founding of Wilmington, Delaware (1938)

The historian H. Arnold Barton has suggested that the greatest significance of New Sweden was the strong and long-lasting interest in North America that the colony generated in Sweden.[22] Major Swedish immigration to the United States did not occur until the late 19th century, however. From 1870 to 1910, over one million Swedes arrived, settling particularly in Minnesota and other states of the Upper Midwest (see Swedish American).

Traces of New Sweden persist in the lower Delaware Valley to this day, including Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, Delaware; Gloria Dei Church and St. James Kingsessing Church in Philadelphia; Trinity Episcopal Church in Swedesboro, New Jersey; and Christ Church (est. 1760) in Swedesburg (Upper Meriion Township), Pennsylvania. All of those churches are commonly known as "Old Swedes' Church".[23] Christiana, Delaware, is one of the few settlements in the area with a Swedish name. Swedesford Road is still found in Chester and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania, although Swedesford has long since become Norristown. The American Swedish Historical Museum, located in FDR Park in South Philadelphia, houses many exhibits, documents, and artifacts from the New Sweden colony.[24]

Perhaps the greatest contribution of New Sweden to the development of the New World is the traditional Finnish forest house building technique. The colonists of New Sweden brought with them the log cabin, which became such an icon of the American frontier that it is thought of as an American structure.[25][26] The C. A. Nothnagle Log House on Swedesboro-Paulsboro Road in Gibbstown, New Jersey, is one of the oldest surviving log houses in the United States.[27][28]

Finnish influence

The settlers came from all over the Swedish realm. The percentage of Finns in New Sweden grew especially towards the end of the colonization,[29] comprising 22% of the population during Swedish rule, but rising to about 50% after the colony came under Dutch rule.[30] The year 1664 saw the arrival of a contingent of 140 Finns. In 1655, when the ship Mercurius sailed to the colony, 92 of the 106 passengers were listed as Finns. Memory of the early Finnish settlement lived on in place names near the Delaware River such as Finland (Marcus Hook), Torne, Lapland, Finns Point and Mullica Hill and Mullica River.[31]

A portion of these Finns were known as Forest Finns, people of Finnish descent living in the forest areas of Central Sweden. The Forest Finns had moved from Savonia in Eastern Finland to Dalarna, Bergslagen and other provinces in central Sweden during the late-16th and early-to-mid-17th centuries. Their relocation had started as part of an effort by Swedish king Gustav Vasa, to expand agriculture to these uninhabited parts of the country. The Finns in Savonia traditionally farmed with a slash-and-burn method which was better suited to pioneering agriculture in vast forest areas. This was also the farming method used by the Native Americans of Delaware.[32]

Forts

Permanent settlements

Rivers and creeks

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Delaware". World Statesmen. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  2. ↑ copy the cite data from the New American Heritage book of Indians on Susquehannock.
  3. ↑ "A Brief History of New Sweden in America". The Swedish Colonial Society.
  4. ↑ Mark L. Thompson (2013). The Contest for the Delaware Valley: Allegiance, Identity, and Empire in the Seventeenth Century. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-5060-3.
  5. ↑ McCormick, p. 12; Munroe, Colonial Delaware, p. 16.
  6. ↑ Thorne, Kathryn; Ford, Compiler; Long, John H., eds. (1993). New York Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. The Newbury Library. p. 5.
  7. ↑ "Estonians in North America: 1627-1896".
  8. ↑ Jennings, p.117
  9. ↑ Shorto, Russell, The Island at the Center of the World, Part II; Chapter 6; Pages 115–117.
  10. ↑ Jennings, p. 120
  11. ↑ "Upland Court". West Jersey History Project.
  12. ↑ Munroe, History of Delaware, pp. 30–31
  13. ↑ "Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church". National Park Service.
  14. 1 2 3 Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 12. pp. 507–508.
  15. ↑ Parry, Clive, ed. Consolidated Treaty Series.; Vol. 13, p. 136; Dobbs Ferry, New York; Oceana Publications, 1969–1981.
  16. 1 2 Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 12. p. 515.
  17. ↑ Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 12. pp. 561–563.
  18. ↑ Armstrong, Edward (1860). Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Volume 119; Record of the Court at Upland, in Pennsylvania, 1676 to 1681. Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania. p. 198.
  19. ↑ Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 12. pp. 654, 664, 666–667.
  20. ↑ Armstrong, Edward (1860). Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Volume 119; Record of the Court at Upland, in Pennsylvania, 1676 to 1681. Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania. p. 196.
  21. ↑ Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd series, Vol. 5: pp. 739–744.
  22. ↑ Barton, A Folk Divided, 5–7.
  23. ↑ Project Canterbury. Swedish Folk within Our Church (Thomas Burgess. New York: Foreign-Born Americans Division, Episcopal Diocese of New York. National Council, 1929) http://anglicanhistory.org/lutherania/swedish_folk
  24. ↑ "Museum Galleries | American Swedish Historical Museum". www.americanswedish.org. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  25. ↑ Henry C. Pitz, The Brandywine Tradition, Weathervane Books, 1968. Pp. 4-5.
  26. ↑ Mary Trotter Kion, "New Sweden: The First Colony in Delaware". July 23, 2006; accessed 2010.03.10.
  27. ↑ "Nothnagle Log Cabin, Gibbstown". Art and Archtitecture of New Jersey. Richard Stokton College of New Jersey. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
  28. ↑ OLDEST - Log House in North America - Superlatives on. Waymarking.com. Retrieved on July 23, 2013.
  29. ↑ "genealogia.org". www.genealogia.org.
  30. ↑ Wedin, Maud (October 2012). "Highlights of Research in Scandinavia on Forest Finns" (PDF). American-Swedish Organization. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  31. ↑ Spiegel, Taru. "The Finns in America". European Reading Room. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 26, 2010.
  32. ↑ "Finland monument at Concord Avenue in Chester, Pennsylvania". Historical Markers. ExplorePAhistory.com. Retrieved August 26, 2010.
  33. ↑ The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638-1664 Volume I (Amandus Johnson Reprint Services Corp. 1911)
  34. ↑ Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware 1630-1707 (ed. Albert Cook Myers. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1912)
  35. ↑ The Swedes and Finns in New Jersey (Federal Writers' Project of WPA. Bayonne, New Jersey: Jersey Printing Company, Inc. 1938)
  36. ↑ History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, by Henry Graham Ashmead. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co. 1884
  37. ↑ Kingsessing: Swedish Settlement to Urban Blight, Elizabeth D. Day, University Archives and Records Center. University of Pennsylvania, 10 October 2005)
  38. ↑ History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Henry Graham Ashmead. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co. 1884
  39. ↑ "Site Of Fort Casimir". Delaware Public Archives. State of Delaware. Archived from the original on 2010-08-21. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Johnson, Amandus. The Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 1638–1664.. Swedish Colonial Society, 1911.
  41. ↑ Chandler, Alfred N. (2000) [1945], Land Title Origins: A Tale of Force and Fraud, Beard Books, p. 242, ISBN 1-893122-89-1
  42. ↑ Sheridan, Janet L. (2007). ""Their houses are some Built of timber": The colonial timber frame houses of Fenwick's Colony, New Jersey". University of Michigan Ann Arbor: 182. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  43. ↑ Howe, Henry; Barber, John W. (1844), Salem, NJ, New York: S. Tuttle, In 1641, some English families, (probably emigrants from New Haven, Conn.,) embracing about 60 persons, settled on Ferken's creek (now Salem.) About this period, the Swedes bought of the Indians the whole district from Cape May to Raccoon creek; and, in order to unite these English with the Swedes, the Swedish governor, Printz, who arrived from Sweden the year after, (1642,) was to "act kindly and faithfully toward them; and as these English expected soon, by further arrivals, to increase their numbers to several hundreds, and seemed also willing to be subjects of the Swedish government, he was to receive them under allegiance, though not without endeavoring to effect their removal."
  44. ↑ Williams, Rev. Dr. Kim-Eric. "Trinity Episcopal Church". The Swedish Colonial Society. Archived from the original on January 15, 2008.
  45. ↑ "History: Early Settlement". Trinity Episcopal "Old Swedes" Church. Trinity Episcopal "Old Swedes" Church. Archived from the original on September 5, 2008.
  46. ↑ Roncace, Kelly (May 14, 2012). "What's in a Name? Raccoon Creek". South Jersey Times. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  47. ↑ "The Kepharts: Cohawkin, Raccoon Creek, Narraticon all names left by Lenni-Lenape in Gloucester County".

Sources

  • Barton, H. Arnold (1994). A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish Americans, 1840–1940. (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis).
  • Benson, Adolph B. and Naboth Hedin, eds. Swedes in America, 1638–1938 (The Swedish American Tercentenary Association. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1938) ISBN 978-0-8383-0326-9
  • Jennings, Francis, (1984) The Ambiguous Iroquois, (New York: Norton) ISBN 0-393-01719-2
  • Johnson, Amandus (1927) The Swedes on the Delaware (International Printing Company, Philadelphia)
  • Munroe, John A. (1977) Colonial Delaware (Delaware Heritage Press, Wilmington)
  • Shorto, Russell (2004) The Island at the Center of the World (Doubleday, New York ) ISBN 0-385-50349-0
  • Weslager, C.A. (1990) A Man and his Ship, Peter Minuet and the Kalmar Nyckel (Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, Wilmington ) ISBN 0-9625563-1-9
  • Weslager, C. A. (1988) New Sweden on the Delaware 1638–1655 (The Middle Atlantic Press, Wilmington ) ISBN 0-912608-65-X
  • Weslager, C. A.(1987) The Swedes and Dutch at New Castle (The Middle Atlantic Press, Wilmington) ISBN 0-912608-50-1

Further reading

  • Mickley, Joseph J. Some Account of William Usselinx and Peter Minuit: Two individuals who were instrumental in establishing the first permanent colony in Delaware (The Historical Society of Delaware. 1881)
  • Jameson, J. Franklin Willem Usselinx: Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies (G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1887)
  • Myers, Albert Cook, ed. Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey, and Delaware, 1630–1707. (New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912)
  • Ward, Christopher Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609–1664 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1930)

Coordinates: 39°44′12″N 75°32′19″W / 39.73667°N 75.53861°W / 39.73667; -75.53861

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