The Swedes on the Delaware, 1638-1664 by Amandus Johnson
"The Swedes on the Delaware, 1638-1664" by Amandus Johnson is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It examines Sweden’s attempt to found and sustain the New Sweden colony on the Delaware River, tracing its European roots, the expeditions that established it, the colony’s daily life and governance, and its rivalry with Dutch and English interests. The opening of the work sets the stage in Sweden, outlining the wartime politics
of Gustavus Adolphus, Queen Christina, and Carl X, and showing how military ambition, administrative reforms, and a state‑guided Lutheran culture fostered trade, shipbuilding, and colonial thinking. It surveys Sweden’s industries, commerce, transport, postal system, money and measures, and the era’s many trading companies, especially Willem Usselinx’s South Company. The narrative then shifts to the actual birth of New Sweden: Amsterdam merchant Samuel Blommaert and former New Netherland director Peter Minuit guide Swedish interest toward the Delaware; the first expedition (Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip) sails in 1637–1638 with trade goods and soldiers, establishes a foothold, and returns with modest profits; Minuit dies soon after at St. Christopher. Johnson details the legal steps (Indian deeds, depositions), the shaky finances, and a second voyage in 1640 that brings the first Lutheran pastor (Reorus Torkillus), commander Peter Hollender Ridder, and officials like Gregorius van Dyck. As Dutch investors are bought out and the venture becomes fully Swedish, the section closes with plans to attract more settlers under special privileges, signaling the colony’s next phase. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.html.images | 607 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.epub3.images | 3.5 MB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.epub.images | 3.5 MB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.epub.noimages | 386 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.kf8.images | 4.1 MB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.kindle.images | 4.0 MB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77652.txt.utf-8 | 514 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/77652/pg77652-h.zip | 3.3 MB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Johnson, Amandus, 1877-1974 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 16002969 |
| Title | The Swedes on the Delaware, 1638-1664 |
| Original Publication | Philadelphia: Lenapé Press, 1914. |
| Series Title | The Swedes in America, 1638-1900, vol. 1 |
| Note | No more volumes published. |
| Note | "Essentially an abridgment" of the author's The Swedish settlements on the Delaware, according to preface. |
| Credits | Karin Spence and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | E151: History: America: United States |
| Subject | New Sweden -- History |
| Subject | Swedes -- United States |
| Subject | Delaware River Valley (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.) -- History |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77652 |
| Release Date | Jan 9, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1299 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |