New Sweden

The New Sweden colony first made an appearance in Twelve Mile Circle a few weeks ago. Back then I spoke of an ancient trust, on Burlington Island in the Delaware River.

Swedes don’t get much attention for their colonial history in North America. The narrative generally focuses upon English, Spanish and French interests. Sometimes Dutch efforts gain a mention because of New Netherland, probably because their capital at New Amsterdam later became New York City under British control. However Sweden’s colonial aspirations hardly generate more than a footnote when mentioned at all.

Kartskiss över Nya Sverige. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
New Sweden

Sweden transformed into a significant European power during the 17th Century: “By mid-century, the kingdom included part of Norway, all of Finland and stretched into Russia. Sweden’s control of portions of modern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany made the Baltic Sea essentially a Swedish lake.” Meanwhile, colonization began to sort the first-tier powers from the runners-up. Sweden wanted to be a player. They had to reach across the ocean or risk being left behind.


Colonizing the New World

They formed the New Sweden Company and appointed Pieter Minuit to lead an effort to establish a colony. Although not Swedish, Minuit (a Walloon) understood the target area well. He’d already been credited with “purchasing” Manhattan from a local Lenape tribe of Native Americans for 60 guilders worth of trinkets and beads, and he’d led the New Netherland colony for several years thereafter. He had the requisite experience and he was available. The Dutch government later recalled him and essentially fired him “presumably for granting privileges to the patroons at the expense of the Dutch West India Company.”

Minuit understood that the Dutch were in no position to defend their southern boundaries in New Netherland. He sailed a Swedish expedition directly into Delaware Bay and up to where it narrowed to form the Delaware River. Here he took the expedition up to its confluence with a smaller river and built a fortification at a strategic point, naming it Fort Christina in honor of the Swedish queen. He contrived another “purchase” from the local Native Americans in an attempt to legitimize this Swedish incursion upon Dutch claims. New Sweden (Nya Sverige) was born in 1638 at what is now modern-day Wilmington, Delaware.


The Heyday

The colony prospered initially, especially under Governor Printz during a decade of expansion between 1643 and 1653. I’ve attempted to draw an approximate area of maximum influence. Sweden claimed a much larger area than this, however it stuck primarily to the waterways of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, and various nearby tributaries.

Consider a modern-day area extending south of Wilmington to northeast of Philadelphia with a concentration right around Philadelphia International Airport and that should do it. This included territory in what would later become the Twelve Mile Circle (the real one!). It never covered much territory and it didn’t extend far inland. Neither did it last very long. The party ended by 1655 although it sputtered-along for awhile afterwards under other nations’ control.

1655 marked the year that the Dutch took back what they felt rightfully belonged to them. They captured the Swedish colony and incorporated it within New Netherland. They allowed the Swedes to exercise a level of autonomy with little change to day-to-day affairs. Next came the English who overthrew New Netherland in 1664, followed again by the Dutch who gained an upper-hand in 1673 and finally by the English for the last time in 1674. Swedish autonomy continued unofficially for awhile until William Penn secured a charter for Pennsylvania in 1682 and assimilation began.


Remnants

Only small artifacts remain of the failed Swedish attempt to colonize North America. One tangible element includes the C. A. Nothnagle Log House which dates to circa 1638, from the earliest days of New Sweden. The original cabin is the smaller part of the structure on this Google Street View image.

This simple cabin in Gibbstown, New Jersey is reputed to be “one of the oldest surviving log houses in the United States.” It may have been constructed either by Swedes or by Finnish settlers who were part of the Swedish Empire at the time.

Other features offering hints and clues of New Sweden include towns such as Swedesboro, NJ (map) and Christiana, DE (note slight spelling variation; map); the Christina River through northern Delaware (map); parks in Wilmington, DE (map) and Tinicum Township, PA (map); a handful of Old Swedes Churches plus any number of roads with heritage-themed names. The legacy also continues through groups such as the Swedish Colonial Society in Philadelphia, PA; and the New Sweden Colonial Farmstead Museum in Bridgeton, NJ (UPDATE: which unfortunately closed circa 2015).

Doubtless, few people realize the former Swedish presence along the lower Delaware River.

Comments

4 responses to “New Sweden”

  1. Craig Avatar
    Craig

    I can remember when I was a child that the river was still called the Christiana, like the town and the mall. In anticipation of the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Swedish settlement, the river was redubbed the Christina.

  2. Fredrik Avatar
    Fredrik

    When visiting Pennsylvania last year, I passed a place called Sweden Valley just outside of Coudersport. I don’t know, but maybe this also has some interesting Swedish story. An interesting thing about this place is that it’s located only half an hour drive from where Ole Bull, an internationally famous violinist from Bergen, tried to establish a New Norway named after his wife Oleana. It went well for a while, but eventually it failed. Today this has become Ole Bull State Park consisting of a camping and a few houses (3-5 or so, including a shop) in a “village” called Oleona. On the camping you can find some information about the place.

  3. Phil Sites Avatar

    In early June, as I was driving my cousin back to his hometown in Delaware from Niagara Falls (one long travel day) I remarked while passing through that Christiana sounds very Swedish (coming from a Norwegian background myself). Of course, this all makes sense now. It’s interesting to note that while Norway and Sweden are considered by many to be co-joined twins of the Scandinavian world, their respective settlers couldn’t have chosen two different places to take root in our country (at least for the most part).

  4. Fritz Keppler Avatar
    Fritz Keppler

    Oleanna is also the source of a song popularized by the Kingston Trio in the early 60’s, as a spoof of a supposed utopia.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleanna_(song)

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