Upon arrival in 1654, Risingh expressed concerns about the loss of Native alliances due to declining trade.[3] 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 Maryland and Dutch colony of New Netherland.[4]
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.[4] Swedish-allied Lenape launched raids on underdefended villages in New Netherland in response to the Dutch attack on New Sweden.[5][6] Despite this, New Sweden prompted to surrender following the fall of Fort Christina to the Dutch on August 15, 1655.[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.[7]
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.[8]
Risingh is an amusing character in Washington Irving's "Knickerbocker's History of New York." Irving gives a tongue-in-cheek report of the battle for Fort Casimir.[9]
^ abcdeJohnson, 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. JSTOR20086209.
^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)
^Irving, Washington: Knickerbocker's History of New York, Ed. Anne Carroll Moore, NewYork:Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1959. Originally published 1809.
Johnson, Amandus. Johan Classon Rising: The Last Governor of New Sweden (Philadelphia: The Swedish Colonial Society, 1915)
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)
Griffis, William Elliot. The Story of New Netherland. The Dutch In America (Boston And New York. Houghton Mifflin Company. The Riverside Press Cambridge. 1909)
