Anna-Karins Historical Blog

Most of the first Swedish emigrants who immigrated  to USA  before the American Civil War 1861-1865 settled in the Northern  States. A small number, however had settled in  the Southern  states which in 1861 broke away  from  the Union and founded the Confederate states of America . According to the US Federal  Census of 1850, around  680 Swedish-born  lived in the South by 1860 (accordint tho the census)they were around1200.  One of the Souths oldest and most significant cities was and is Charleston in South Carolina . The state of South Carolina, like most of the southern states at this time, was dominated by  an agrarian economy with large-scale plantation farming with slaves as labor as opposed to the more industrialized  non slavery based economy of the North. 1862 Johnson Map of North Carolina and South Carolina - Geographicus - NCSC Johnson-1862 Charlston was a thriving port city founded 1670 by English colonists . The city was first called Charles Town after t

In the  autumn of 1888 London and especially the poorer Whitchapel  of London was held captive by an unknown serial killer who killed 5 women. Despite being one of the most well known serial killers of all time and despite a big manhunt at the time by Scotland Yard, he was never caught.  He is known by the name he supposedly gave himself   JACK THE RIPPER  and for the gruesome way in which he mutilated his victims, Much have been written about Jack the Ripper and his supposed identity.There exist over 100 theories about  who he was and there has been hundreds of books written on the subject. The persons bhind the names of the 5 women commonly thought to be his victims are less wellknown. Most of them where poor women living a hard and miserable  life in Whitechapel  earning their living by taking odd jobs as cleaners and whole or part time time prostitution What is less known is that the third of his victims was Swedish. ELIZABETH STRIDE . She was born as  Elisabeth Gustafsdotter w

Victims of the Spanish Flu ;  Prince Eric the  forgotten prince Prince  Eric (  Erik Gustaf Louis Albert) Duke of Västmanland     was born on 20 April 1889 at the Royal Palacein Stockholm as the youngest son of the then Crown Prince  Gustaf (Gustav V)  from 1858 to 1950 and his wife  Victoria of Baden  1862-193 0.He dad  two older brothers   Gustavus Adolphus (Gustaf VI Adolf)  1882-1972 and  Wilhelm  1884- 1964  .His paternal  Grandfather was King  Oscar II 1829-1907  and grandmother Queen  Sofia of Nassau.  The previous year had been hard for the Crown Princess Victoria.both  her grandfather Emperor  Wilhelm I  of Germany and her younger brother Prince  Louis of Baden  had died. Her  pregnancy was difficult and Victoria had to take strong medications, which were believed to have affected the child. (Wikipedia photo) Erik was small and frail at birth, and it soon became apparent that something was wrong with him.  He probably suffered from some form of epilepsy