Editing Johan Risingh

[[File:Signature of Johan Classon Risingh (1617–1672).png|thumb|Signature of Johan Classon Risingh]]
{{Short description|Swedish colonial governor}}
'''Johan Classon Risingh''' (1617–1672) was a Swedish politician who was the last governor of [[New Sweden]], the Swedish colony in North America.

==Biography==
Risingh was born in 1617 in [[Finspång Municipality|Risinge]], [[Östergötland]], [[Sweden]]. His father was a pastor named Reverend Clas Botvidi.<ref name=":1">Johnson, Amandus. “Johan Classon Rising, the Last Director of New Sweden, on the Delaware.” ''The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 39, no. 2 (1915): 129–42. {{JSTOR|20086209}}.</ref> After [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] at [[Linköping]], he attended the [[University of Uppsala]] and [[University of Leyden]]. From 1651 to 1653, he held the office of secretary of the [[Commercial College of Sweden]] under [[Erik Alexsson Oxenstierna]].<ref name=":1" /> He wrote the first treatise on trade and economics ever compiled in Sweden in the autumn of 1653. Receiving knighthood, he set out from Sweden early in 1654, to take up his duties in New Sweden.<ref>''Immigrants to New Sweden'' ("The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware", [[Amandus Johnson]]. 1911) http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycoloni/shsw9orn.html</ref> Risingh was appointed assistant councilor of New Sweden under Governor [[Johan Björnsson Printz|Johan Printz]].<ref name=":1" />

Upon arrival in 1654, Risingh expressed concerns about the loss of Native alliances due to declining trade.<ref>Rising, Johan. Report of Governor Johan Rising, 1654, on New Sweden. Retrieved from https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/unearthing-past-student-research-pennsylvania-history/new-sweden-source-documents</ref> This relationship was in decline due to rising hostilities over trade competition in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Risingh wrote that the loss of Native alliances could severely impact the territorial integrity of New Sweden against the English colony of [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]] and Dutch colony of [[New Netherland]].<ref name=":0">Rising, Johan. Report of Governor Johan Rising, 1655, on New Sweden. Retrieved from {{doi|10.7282/T3C827S7}}</ref>

His first act was to cause the seizure of the Dutch [[Fort Casimir]], which the [[Director of New Netherland|Director-General of New Netherland]], [[Peter Stuyvesant]],  had erected just below [[Fort Christina]] (near [[New Castle, Delaware]]) in 1651. Risingh claimed that Fort Casimir had been built on land that New Sweden had purchased from the local Native Americans.<ref name=":1" />

Stuyvesant subsequently responded by leading an expedition to New Sweden and brought the colony under control of his government. In 1655, Risingh wrote to the Swedish government asking for financial support, but none was given.<ref name=":0" /> Swedish-allied Lenape launched raids on underdefended villages in New Netherland in response to the Dutch attack on New Sweden.<ref>Lindeström Peter Martensson. ''Geographia Americae: With an Account of the Delaware Indians'', 211-222. Philadelphia, PA: Swedish Colonial Society, 1925. Retrieved from https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/unearthing-past-student-research-pennsylvania-history/new-sweden-source-documents</ref><ref>Bogaert, Johannes. Letter of Johannes Bogaert to Hans Bontemantel, 1655. Retrieved from {{doi|10.7282/T3MS3R8F}}</ref> Despite this, New Sweden prompted to surrender following the [[Conquest of New Sweden|fall of Fort Christina to the Dutch]] on August 15, 1655.<ref name=":1" /> After the surrender, Risingh and the other officials, soldiers, and such colonists as were unwilling to become Dutch subjects, were taken back to Europe. Risingh died in poverty at Stockholm in April 1672.<ref>''Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware 1630-1707'' (edited by [[Albert Cook Myers]]. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6006573] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626032129/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6006573|date=2012-06-26}}{{ISBN?}}</ref>

Risingh's reports for the period 1654 to 1655, constituting a valuable history of New Sweden under his administration. A contemporary manuscript copy of this report in Swedish is in the [[National Library of Sweden]]. This report was printed in 1878, in the appendix of [[Carl K. S. Sprinchorn]]'s ''Kolonien Nya Sveriges Historia'' (in English: History of the Colony of New Sweden). A translation of Sprinchorn's text was made by [[Amandus Johnson]].<ref>''The Rise and Fall of New Sweden: Governor Johan Risingh’s Journal 1654-1655 in Its Historical Context'' (by Stellan Dahlgren and Hans Norman. trans by Marie Clark Nelson. Stockholm, Sweden: Uppsala, 1988)</ref>

== In culture ==
Risingh is a character in [[Washington Irving]]'s "Knickerbocker's History of New York."  Irving gives a tongue-in-cheek report of the battle for Fort Casimir.<ref>Irving, Washington: Knickerbocker's History of New York, Ed. Anne Carroll Moore, NewYork:Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1959.  Originally published 1809.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Other sources==
*[[Amandus Johnson|Johnson, Amandus]]. ''Johan Classon Rising: The Last Governor of New Sweden'' (Philadelphia: The Swedish Colonial Society, 1915)
*[[Amandus Johnson|Johnson, Amandus]]. ''The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638-1664, Volume II'' (Philadelphia: The Swedish Colonial Society, 1927)
*Ward, Christopher. ''Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609 - 1664'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1930)
*[[William Elliot Griffis|Griffis, William Elliot]]. ''The Story of New Netherland. The Dutch In America '' (Boston And New York. Houghton Mifflin Company. The Riverside Press Cambridge. 1909)
*Myers, Albert Cook. ''Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707.'' Charles Scribner's, 1912. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/narrativesofearl00myer/page/n3/mode/2up

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060906221142/http://www.libraries.psu.edu/digital/pahistory/liz_pdfs/rising.pdf Report of Governor Johan Risingh, 1654 (his name has in the modernised English translation been changed to Rising)]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before= [[Johan Papegoja]]}}
{{s-ttl|title= [[New Sweden|Governor of New Sweden]]
|years= May 1654 - September 15, 1655}}
{{s-non|reason=Captured by [[New Netherland]]}}
{{end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Risingh, Johan}}
[[Category:1617 births]]
[[Category:1672 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Finspång Municipality]]
[[Category:Governors of New Sweden]]
[[Category:People from New Netherland]]
[[Category:People of New Sweden]]
[[Category:People from colonial Delaware]]