New Sweden

New Sweden (Swedish: Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony that existed in the Delaware Valley from 1638 to 1655, predating William Penn's founding of Pennsylvania by more than four decades. The colony stretched along the Delaware River from the present site of Trenton, New Jersey, to the mouth of the bay, encompassing lands in what would become Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Though the colony was small, short-lived, and ultimately conquered by the Dutch, New Sweden left a lasting imprint on the Philadelphia region, including the oldest surviving church building in Pennsylvania, Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in Queen Village.

Founding and Early Years

The colony of New Sweden was established in 1638 when an expedition sponsored by the New Sweden Company landed at a site they named Fort Christina (present-day Wilmington, Delaware). The expedition was led by Peter Minuit, a Dutch colonial administrator who had previously purchased Manhattan for the Dutch West India Company before falling out with his employers and offering his services to Sweden. Minuit had recruited two shiploads of Swedish and Finnish colonists, along with Dutch soldiers and sailors, for the venture. The Swedes selected a site at the confluence of the Christina River (named for the young Queen Christina of Sweden) and the Delaware, establishing a fortified trading post as the foundation of their American enterprise.

The primary purpose of New Sweden was trade, particularly the fur trade with the Lenape people and other indigenous nations of the Delaware Valley. The Swedes exchanged European goods—cloth, metal tools, and weapons—for beaver pelts and other furs that commanded high prices in European markets. Unlike some colonial ventures, New Sweden initially maintained relatively peaceful relations with the Lenape, purchasing land through negotiated agreements rather than conquest. However, the colony struggled from the outset with insufficient supplies, inadequate support from Sweden, and competition from the better-established Dutch and English colonies to the north and south.

Expansion to Tinicum Island

In 1643, Johan Printz arrived as the new governor of New Sweden, bringing new colonists and instructions to strengthen the colony's position. Printz recognized that Fort Christina was vulnerable to Dutch competition and established a new capital at Tinicum Island, the first European settlement within the present boundaries of Pennsylvania. Located in the Delaware River near present-day Philadelphia International Airport, Tinicum (from the Lenape word meaning "islands") offered a more strategic position from which to control river trade. Printz built his residence, Printzhof, on the island, along with a fort, storehouse, and church—the first Lutheran church in North America.

Under Printz's firm leadership, New Sweden expanded its territorial claims and established additional settlements and trading posts along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. The colony's population grew slowly, supplemented by Finnish settlers (Finland being then part of the Swedish realm) who brought expertise in log cabin construction—a building technique that would later spread throughout the American frontier. Printz was an effective but autocratic governor whose heavy-handed rule caused considerable discontent among the colonists. His decade in office (1643-1653) represented the high point of Swedish colonial presence in the Delaware Valley, though the colony never achieved the size or prosperity its sponsors had envisioned.

Colonial Life

Life in New Sweden was difficult, marked by shortages of supplies and the challenges of establishing European settlement in the American wilderness. The colonial population probably never exceeded 600 people, scattered among a handful of settlements along the Delaware River. Colonists included soldiers, farmers, craftsmen, and their families, drawn from Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands. Many were involuntary emigrants—soldiers who had deserted, debtors, and others whom Swedish authorities wished to be rid of. The colony maintained a small militia and a fort at several locations, but never possessed sufficient military strength to defend against determined attack.

The Swedes and Finns who settled New Sweden brought with them agricultural traditions adapted to the northern European forests. Finnish settlers, in particular, introduced the log cabin construction technique that would become iconic of the American frontier. They cleared land using slash-and-burn methods similar to those practiced in the forests of Finland and Sweden, establishing farms on the relatively narrow strips of fertile land along the rivers. Swedish colonists also established the first mills and attempted to cultivate tobacco, though with limited success. The colony maintained nominal Lutheran religious observance, though formal church services were often impossible due to the shortage of clergy.

Relationship with Indigenous Peoples

New Sweden's relationship with the Lenape people was generally more peaceful than many colonial encounters, though not without tension. The Swedes, unlike some later colonists, recognized Lenape ownership of the land and purchased territory through negotiated treaties rather than simply claiming it by right of discovery or conquest. These land purchases, while perhaps not fully understood by the Lenape in European legal terms, established a pattern of relatively cooperative relations. The fur trade provided mutual benefits: the Swedes gained valuable pelts for export, while the Lenape acquired European manufactured goods that enhanced their material culture and military capabilities.

However, the Swedish presence contributed to the disruption of traditional Lenape life. European diseases, against which the Lenape had no immunity, spread through indigenous communities, causing significant mortality even before English colonization began. The fur trade altered traditional economic patterns and drew the Lenape into increasing dependence on European goods. Competition among European powers for Lenape trade alliance created new political pressures. And the steady expansion of Swedish settlements onto previously Lenape-controlled lands foreshadowed the more extensive dispossession that would follow under English rule.

Dutch Conquest

The end of New Sweden came swiftly in 1655 when Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of New Netherland, arrived with a fleet of seven ships and several hundred soldiers. The Dutch had long viewed the Swedish colony as an intrusion on territory they claimed by right of prior exploration, and Stuyvesant was determined to eliminate this competitor. The small Swedish garrison at Fort Christina, hopelessly outnumbered, surrendered without serious resistance. The colony's other posts, including the capital at Tinicum Island, likewise fell without significant fighting. Governor Johan Rising, who had replaced Printz in 1654, negotiated terms that allowed Swedish colonists to remain on their lands under Dutch rule.

The Dutch Conquest of New Sweden ended Swedish political control in the Delaware Valley but did not end the Swedish cultural presence. Most Swedish and Finnish colonists remained on their farms under Dutch and later English rule, maintaining their language, Lutheran faith, and distinctive customs for generations. The Swedish population contributed to the development of the region even after their political independence was lost. When William Penn arrived to establish Pennsylvania in 1682, he found a population of several hundred Swedish and Finnish colonists who had already been farming the land for decades—a European presence that Penn incorporated into his new colony.

Legacy

Though New Sweden lasted only seventeen years as an independent colony, its legacy in the Philadelphia region endures. Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church, built between 1698 and 1700 by the descendants of Swedish colonists, is the oldest church building in Pennsylvania and stands in Queen Village as a National Historic Landmark. Tinicum, the site of the Swedish colonial capital, is commemorated by Governor Printz Park in what is now Essington, Pennsylvania. The Swedes' log cabin building technique spread across the American frontier, influencing vernacular architecture for centuries. And the pattern of relatively peaceful land purchase from indigenous peoples that the Swedes established influenced William Penn's later approach to relations with the Lenape.

Historical markers and museums throughout the region commemorate the Swedish colonial period. The American Swedish Historical Museum in South Philadelphia, founded in 1926, preserves the heritage of Swedish settlement in America. The Gloria Dei Church maintains its historic building and cemetery as a memorial to the colonial period. These institutions ensure that the brief but significant Swedish presence in the Philadelphia region is not forgotten, preserving the memory of a European settlement that predated Philadelphia itself by nearly half a century.

See Also

• Fort Christina
• Tinicum Island
• Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church
• Dutch Conquest of New Sweden
• Lenape People