QuoteReplyTopic: Finnish role in the creation of American nation Posted: 08-Dec-2010 at 13:46
At the beginning of the 1600s Sweden was a world power whose troops fought successfully in Germany, Poland, the Baltic, Russia, and Denmark. Sweden's land holdings grew noticeably at the expense of her neighbors. In addition to the pursuit of power in Europe, Sweden like many other European countries established trading companies that specialized in forging avenues of trade to Africa, Asia, and America. It was the responsibility of the companies to fill the royal treasury riches from beyond the Atlantic. The initial plans to establish trading companies had begun by the mid 1620s. These plans began to materialize when the Swedes, in collaboration with the Dutch, established a trading company which was to do business in the West. With the help of the Dutch and above all, a man named Peter Minuit, the company gained a foothold on the lower Delaware River. The trading post was named New Sweden and the first colonists arrived from Sweden in 1638.
The New Sweden colony was situated along the Delaware River in an area made up of portions of present day Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. The first Swedish ship arrived only 18 years after the famous Mayflower had landed in Massachusetts. Nevertheless, the Swedes were latecomers to the Delaware region. The English and Dutch had already made territorial claims to the area ever since the 1610s. In fact, the Dutch themselves had attempted the settlement of the Delaware River valley. When the Swedes arrived on the Delaware, the Dutch West Indies Trading Company considered the region to be their own.
The Dutch provided half of the funding as well as the direction for the first expedition sent from Sweden to the Delaware region. The leader was a Dutchman named Peter Minuit, who had long been active in New Holland before the founding of New Sweden. In 1642 the New Sweden Trading Company was reorganized when the Dutch found the company to be a bad investment and withdrew from the venture. After this, the trading company was almost entirely Swedish and the Crown had a direct hand in its management. The company was reorganized again in 1654-55 and documents indicate that from this point on, it was called the American Company. In September of 1655 Sweden lost the colony to the Dutch, who were led by the energetic and skillful Peter Stuyvesant. Dutch rule, in turn, ended in 1664 when the English took control of the area.
Sweden sent a total of twelve expeditions to their colony, of which ten arrived safely. The first of these left at the end of 1637 and the last one departed in November of 1655. One of the ships destined for the colony shipwrecked near Puerto Rico in August of 1649. As a result of a navigational error, the expedition which left Sweden in the spring of 1654 arrived in Manhattan, the center of Dutch activity and was seized by the Hollanders.
The last expedition sent out by the Swedes arrived safely, but not until March 1656 by which time New Sweden had already come under the control of the Dutch. In fact, Sweden had already lost the colony by the time the last expedition set sail. Some years later, immigrants from Värmland's Finnish forest regions arrived in Delaware on their own, that is, they were not sent by the Swedish government. The last of these did not arrive until the beginning of the 1660s. When these immigrants are added to the ones who had arrived in the colony during the Dutch period, then a total of about 1000 immigrants came to North America.
In time, forced migration was no longer necessary, for at the end of the 1640s a veritable "America fever" spread among the Värmland Finns. Thus, in 1649 Matts Erickson of Värmland wrote to the Swedish Privy Council on behalf of 200 Finns and petitioned to have this group sent to New Sweden. From the Council's records for the same year, it becomes clear that there were close to 300 who desired to emigrate. A few, perhaps a tenth of the applicants, succeeded in sailing with the ninth expedition, but very few of this group arrived at their intended destination.
There are no existing details about the composition of the large group which arrived in New Sweden in the spring of 1654. Since we know that recruitment work for this expedition was carried out in the forest regions of Värmland and Dalarna, it is quite likely that the group included Värmland Finns. The recruiter (Sven Skute) came from Kronoby in western Finland.
Of the 105 settlers who arrived in the spring of 1656, we know that at least 92 were of Finnish origin and apparently came from Värmland. As we have already noted, two expeditions arrived in Delaware in 1663. One was made up of 30 Swedish settlers, the other of 32 Finns. The last group to arrive in Delaware (in 1664) was made up entirely of Finns. These settlers who came by way of Norway and Holland, had found out by letter of the possibilities in New Sweden. There are 140 arrivals, both young and old. At least a part of the group's members had come from Värmland.
Even non-Finnish studies point to the fact that the Finns (or Savoans) were the group who brought two very important skills to America: The first of these was the deforestation technique of burnbeating and the construction skill of log cabin building. These claims may seem quite simple and unassuming, but on the other hand, they are claims which may well be true.
U. S. Postage stamp honoring the founding of Wilmington, Delaware
John Morton (1725-1777), a farmer, surveyor, and jurist from the Province of Pennsiylvania, of Finnish descent, a signer of the Declaration of Independence
At the beginning of the 1600s Sweden was a world power whose troops fought successfully in Germany, Poland, the Baltic, Russia, and Denmark.
In Poland Swedes fought with different luck, sometimes getting victories, somtimes being terribly defeated... calling them successfull in Poland is a big exageration... but your article is very interesting and informative. Iv never heard before about Finns in the America.
"I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood" - Friedrich Nietzsche
I don't know where your information came from, but the Swedes were on the Delaware a lot earlier than what this states. Not as an organised colony,but small groups of traders and trappers. In the 60's there were still 2-3 of their original cabins still existing. One was dated to the late 1500's.
When in College in the late 60's I lived in Center City, Phila. not far from what is now Penn's Landing. They were in the process of tearing down all of the old warehouses and other dilapidated structures to make way for Rt 95 and other improvements.
There was a call for volunteers from the colleges in Phila to help with the Archeaology when it was discovered that they had destroyed the original Swedish settlement. It was pretty much all there, but hidden amongst all of the buildings that had come after. No one had a clue that all of that was still there after 400 years. I worked on it when I had time.
BTW- Did you know..............That the first President of the US was a Swede?
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
Unknown.
No they don't, I snuck in and made your link live.
John Morton Homestead, Built ca 1654. Prospect Park PA.
This has been preserved in almost original condition.
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
Unknown.
The Finnish and swedish contributions to the establishment of the American colonies were immeasurable. New Sweden is often refferred to as the "forgotten colony".
This is a very good site detailing the establishment of New Sweden
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
Unknown.
"There are today at least 25 million descendants
of the Swedes and Finns of the Delaware. At least half of these, perhaps
more, have one or more Delaware Finns in their family tree. " The Delaware Finns of Colonial America
Good link, great map. I didn't expect to see the Swedish sites I know of on the Del.River. They aren't on your map. The 3 most remembered would be about 10 miles north of Cinnaminson, and in roughly a 5 mile spread were 2 more. I'm not sure that they were ever documented before they dissappeared.
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
Unknown.
Thanks ”Kanas_Krumesis”;
very interesting topic surprisingly from Bulgaria.
John Morton was one of the
nine signers from Pennsylvania, is better known there than in the
Nation, but he rendered meritorious service to both. He cast the
decisive ballot that swung his State over to an affirmative vote for
independence in the Continental Congress. His vote was decisive
because he had some problems in the traffic lights. So he was the
last one to vote as a delegate of Pennsylvania. He needed one hour to
think pretty well knowing the meaning of his decisive vote.
As a matter of fact his
vote was the sincere vote of the Freemasons.
“Juho Marttinen” alias
John Morton, was married with Finnish born Anna Juustinen and the
result was seven daughters and three sons.
John Morton was not the only
one: What about the the roots of George Bush?
The Finnish newspaper,
Ilta-Sanomat, tells about the theory that Måns Andersson may have
been Finnish is presented. According to Finnish genealogist K-G Olin,
Måns Andersson is mentioned in literature as a Finn from Värmland.
HELSINGIN SANOMAT -
INTERNATIONAL EDITION written by Kalle Koponen in Södra Finnskoga,
Sweden: “The legacy of the 17th century "Forest Finns"
lives on in the border areas of Norway and Sweden. By some curious
historical accident, George W. Bush may have his roots in Finnish
Savo.”
An American genealogical
study has determined that one of Bush's early ancestors was a certain
Måns Andersson, who became a tobacco farmer in New Sweden in the
mid-17th century.Andersson came to America
from the village of Sillerud in the Forest Finn region of Sweden,
crossing the Atlantic on a vessel called the Kalmar Nyckel.
In Torsby it is believed
that Andersson might in fact not have been a Swede at all, but was
named Mauno Antinpoika [Mauno, Antti's son], and one of the Forest
Finns.
In Sweden it was always a
Swedish version of the name that was written into the parish
registers, because the Finnish names when they were pronounced in the
Savo dialect were far too difficult for the clergy to deal with",
explains Zetterberg.
Morton and Bush are not
the only ones to construct the New Continent. The first Finno-Ugrian
king in the New Continent can found about 1200 AD.
The following quotations are eloquent testimony to the effect of this
and similar pressures which furthered the development of bilingualism
and multilingualism and caused the gradual decrement and ultimate
extinction of the Finnish language on the Delaware:
Here [on the west side of the Delaware River, some miles below Trenton]
came up to us a Finland Man well horsed, who could speak English. (From
an entry in William Edmundson's Journal, p. 107, dated 1675-77.)
Most of the Sweads and Finns are ingenious people, they speak English,
Sweed, Finn, Dutch, and the Indian. (From a letter written by Thomas
Paschall in 1682/3, reprinted in Myers, p. 252.)
1688 19th d. 3d m. (May). Mem. of affidavit by Peter Bildr-beek,
concerning a conversation had at Laus Hendrickson's wake at ffins Point,
with Woolla,Woulson and Steven's daughter Annacka [Yerians] about her
pregnancy; she saying, 'she had a young Youdas [Judas], wch is by
interpretation a divill in ffinns language.' (From New Jersey Archives,
XXI, 553.)
This family [that of Anders Sennecson of Penns Neck] is of Finnish
extraction, but has lost the Swedish ! language. (From an entry in
Collin's Journal, p. 227, dated 1773.)
The log cabins of the pioneers resemble those in use in Scandinavia. It's likely the other immigrants copied these due to the presence of extensive pine forests
WILMINGTON — The Swedes and Finns aboard the Kalmar
Nyckel landed Saturday afternoon much as they did 375 years ago to found
New Sweden, the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware
Valley. Source
America is a BIG continent. I - as a Finn from year 1490 - am genetically from Tofalar and my cousin is Tofalar & Buryat. Now they have revealed that Buryat came to Ecuador about (TMRCA) 1600 years ago crossing the Pacific, because same haplotypes found among Maori of New Zealand - not in the north. They even have N1c1 among Maori. My matches are highest among Kichwa (Quechua) of Ecuador, then Aymara of Puna, Jujuy, Bolivia and Peru.
Thanks for sharing, "Nick1986", this was really new to me even if I had a boss with surname "Kopra". Sorry my "Bold", (It changed!) my computer is the Boss and no change after trying may times.
At the beginning of the 1600s Sweden was a world power whose troops fought successfully in Germany, Poland, the Baltic, Russia, and Denmark.
In Poland Swedes fought with different luck, sometimes getting victories, somtimes being terribly defeated... calling them successfull in Poland is a big exageration... but your article is very interesting and informative. Iv never heard before about Finns in the America.
I liked your comment. Why are you "Moskito" , Moskitia or Miskito? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miskito_people You told: "Iv never heard before about Finns in the America.
America is big like a hamburger, from Alaska to central parts of Chile anf Argentine. There are more in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru etc. USA is like a BIG hamburgesr. What is a big and heroic hamburger of Mac Donalds? (He is not a Finn!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZcRU0Op5P4 Please, smile.
Sorry my Finnish in the beginning but the most important part translated.
Ruotsillakin on ollut
siirtomaita. Eräitä Karibian saaria Ruotsi piti kauankin
hallussaan, mutta jalansija Amerikan mantereella jäi
lyhytaikaiseksi. Nykyisten Delawaren ja Pennsylvanian osavaltioiden
rajaseudulla sijaitsi Uusi Ruotsi, jonne monia suomalaisiakin muutti.
Melko tunnettu - ja ilmeisesti tosi - on kertomus Yhdysvaltojen
itsenäisyysjulistuksen yhdestä allekirjoittajasta, John Mortonista
ja hänen suomalaisista sukujuuristaan. Vielä
tunnetumpi maailmalla, joskaan ei suomalaisuudestaan, on vanha
Delawaren-suomalainen sukunimi Rambo. Tutkimusmatkailija Pehr
(Pietari) Kalmiakin opasti hänen Amerikan-matkallaan (1747-1751)
paikallinen asukas, joka kantoi tätä suomalaisperäistä nimeä -
todennäköisesti Värmlannissa Romppasesta Rambergin kautta
muuntunutta.
John Morton is pretty known but Rambo
is more famous?
Free translaton from bold:
Even more famous in the world, but
not to be a Finn, it is the old Delaware Finnish surname Rambo. The
explorer Pehr (Peter) Kalmiakin guided his trip to America
(1747-1751), a local resident, who bore this name of Finnish origin -
most likely in Värmland from Romppanen through Ramberg.
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