The Swedes in GrantsviUe, Utah, 1860-1900 BY D. M I C H O L POLSON
of the Swedish immigration to the United States has been one of a people leaving the harsh environment and economic conditions of their native land to arrive in America. For most Swedes America personified the immigrant's dream: available land, abundant work, and a very real opportunity to better oneself economically. The first Swedes arrived in America in 1638 and established a small colony called New Sweden near Wilmington, Delaware, which was later seized by the Dutch in 1654.^ Little immigration occurred from then on until the 1840s when the first trickle began of what would later become a great flood from Sweden. The modern immigration of Swedes to America commenced in 1841 with a settlement established at Pine Lake, Wisconsin.^ Other settlements, primarily in the northern Midwest, were established despite the fact that emigration from Sweden was officially discouraged until 1860 by laws that required emigrants to return after two or three years or face losing their citizenship or right to inheritance.^ These restrictions were enacted to prevent a labor shortage, and although they were not strictly enforced, their influence was certainly felt. By the late 1860s the situation had dramatically changed, largely because Sweden experienced from 1867 to 1869 a series of disastrous crop failures coupled with spiraling overspeculation in agricultural lands.* Thus, the prevailing economic situation persuaded many Swedes to emigrate. These crop failures, together with a rapidly inF R O M ITS EARLIEST BEGINNINGS THE HISTORY
Mr. Poison, a graduate student in Marriage and Family Therapy, Purdue University, wishes to acknowledge the very important influence of Dr. Robert Kenzer, Department of History, Brigham Young University, in the formulation and editing of this article. 1 Adolf Goddard Leach, "Introduction," in Swedes in America, 1638-1938, ed. Adolf Benson and Naboth Hedin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1938), p. 6. 2Eric Englund, " F a r m e r s , " in ibid., p. 79. ^Florence Janson, The Background of Swedish Immigration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931), p. 1. ^Englund, " F a r m e r s , " p. 80.
