The Swedish Emigration to North America
Between 1850 and 1930 some 1,3 million Swedes left their home to seek their future in North America. Each and every one of them had their own dream about how their new life would turn out.
The emigration reached it’s first peak between 1867 and 1869 mostly due to crop failure and famine in Sweden. After that, the number of Sweden-born persons in the US cencus was almost 100,000 and by 1890 the figure was 478,000.
Swedes kept emigrating until the 1920’s when American immigration laws made it harder for them to be allowed to live in the country. Also, by that time, life in Sweden had become easier, both economically, politically and religously.
Why did so many emigrate?
Sweden in the second half of the nineteenth century was far from what Sweden became in the twentieth century. No religous freedom existed, everybody had to be a part of the Swedish Lutheran Church – the state church (with some exeptions for Jews and Catholics). Not until the beginning of the twentieth century did Sweden have some kind of religous freedom and because of that lots of people emigrated.
Also, the population had grown very much and it became harder to live off the land. There was not enough land to feed everybody and the industrial revolution had not yet come far enough to give work to all that wanted it.
Between the years 1867 and 1869 there was a great famine caused by crop failure. The number of deaths during these years was much greater than the years before. This was also a reason for emigration.
Along with this, there were a good number of adventurers who hoped to made good living and much money in America. Some succeeded, some did not.
Where did they settle?
In the early phase of the Swedish immigration the agricultural areas in western Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and western Wisconsin were the main areas for the Swedes. Later they spread westwards towards Kansas and Nebraska.
By the late nineteenth century, more and more immigrants headed to the cities in New England, the West Coast and the Chicago area to search for job opportunities. As a matter of fact, in the year 1900 Chicago was the second largest Swedish City in the world, only the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, had more Swedish inhabitants than Chicago.