Swedish Americans

Children from Lapland at the Ellis Island Immigration Station, N.J., USA, photographed c. 1906-1914.

Swedish Americans are U.S. Americans with Swedish heritage, most often related to the large groups of immigrants from Sweden in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Most likely, about 8 million Americans have Swedish roots, of whom 4.5 million have been confirmed as Swedish Americans. Most Swedish Americans are Lutherans affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or Methodists.

The few inhabitants of the Swedish colony of New Sweden (in existence 1638-1655) intermarried with other colonists and seem to have disappeared as a distinctive grouping before 1776. The Swedish immigrants that arrived in recent decades settled mostly in the suburbs of New York and Los Angeles.

A few small towns in the U.S. have retained a few visible Swedish characteristics. Some examples include Silverhill, Alabama; Lindstrom, Minnesota; Karlstad, Minnesota; Lindsborg, Kansas; Gothenburg, Nebraska; Andover, Illinois; Kingsburg, California; and Bishop Hill, Illinois. Around 3.7% of the U.S. population is said to have Scandinavian heritage (which also includes Norwegian Americans, Danish Americans, and Icelandic Americans). At present, around 160,000 residents speak a Scandinavian language at home, most of them being recent immigrants. Swedish American communities typically switched to English by 1920. Swedish is rarely taught in high schools or colleges, and Swedish language newspapers or magazines are rare.

History

Swedish Americans usually came through New York City and settled in the Midwest. Most were Lutheran and belonged to synods now associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, including the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, although a significant fraction were Mormon converts who settled in or near Utah, and a few others in the Midwest converted to Catholicism after being exposed to the religion there. Theologically, they were pietistic; politically, they supported progressive causes, and prohibition.

Swedish emigration to the United States reached new heights in 1896, and it was in this year that the Vasa Order of America, a Swedish-American fraternal organization, was founded to help immigrants, who often lacked an adequate network of social services.

In the year 1900, Chicago was the city with the second highest number of Swedes after Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Many others settled in Minnesota in particular as well as Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois. In the east, New England became a destination for many skilled industrial workers and Swedish centers developed in areas such as Jamestown, NY; Providence, RI, and Boston, MA. A small Swedish settlement was also begun in New Sweden, Maine. The largest settlement in New England was Worcester, MA. Here, Swedes were drawn to the city's wire and abrasive industries. By 1900 numerous churches, organizations, businesses, and benevolent associations had been organized. Many Swedes also came to the Pacific Northwest during the turn of the twentieth century, along with Norwegians.