Sweden was the largest country of origin with 1.2 million emigrants. Norway had the largest emigration per capita, as 850,000 Norwegians left a country of just above 2 million.
Legacy
[edit]The Emigrants, original Swedish title Utvandrarna, is an acclaimed series of four Swedish historical novels by Vilhelm Moberg, published from 1949 to 1959.
The books marked the centennary of the Swedish emigration to North America, and have become a canonic piece of Swedish literature. They have been adapted as a 1970s series starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, and the 1995 stage musical Kristina från Duvemåla.
Destinations
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Map of Nordic migration to North America
- Duvemåla, Emmaboda, Småland
- Karlshamn, Blekinge, where the Nilsson family boarded the brig Charlotta to America.
- Battery Park, New York City
- Chisago County, Minnesota
- 1 House of Emigrants (Utvandrarnas Museum), Vilhelm Mobergs gata 4 (Växjö). A museum concerning the great emigration from Sweden in general and from Småland in particular in the 19th century.
- 2 Joe Hill Museum (Gävle, Sweden). This was the birthplace in 1879 of Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, better known as Joe Hill. In 1902 he emigrated to the USA, where he became a labor organizer, song-writer and activist for "Industrial Workers of the World", the "Wobblies". In 1914 a Salt Lake City grocer and his son were shot dead by two intruders; Joe Hill came to a local doctor that evening with a gunshot wound to his chest. He was eventually convicted of the murder, and executed by firing squad in Nov 1915. The prosecution case was shaky and his many supporters believed he was shot for being a "wobbly", but his refusal to convincingly explain his wound sealed his fate.
- 1 Lindstrom, Minnesota: Karl Oskar Days (Lindström, MN). Lindstrom is known as "America's Little Sweden", northeast on 35E from Minneapolis. The Karl Oskar Days are a celebration of Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg's Emigrants series, about Swedish settlers in Minnesota.
- 3 Solvang (California, United States). A Danish town.
- 2 New Sweden, Delaware. New Sweden was the largest Swedish territory outside Europe. It included both banks of the Delaware River, from the Atlantic up to present-day Philadelphia. The colony was established in 1638 by the Swedish South Company, when Fort Christina was set up in what is now Wilmington. The colony was invaded by the Dutch in 1655 and incorporated into New Netherlands, and while many residents stayed, large scale Swedish immigration to the US wouldn't begin until two hundred years later.