From TB to SD – tracing a tainted history of a Swedish slum district

The Others Shall be Ousted from Our Town

EAA Glasgow 2015 – Session SA 21

Claes Pettersson, archaeologist Jönköpings County MuseumSwedenclaes.pettersson@jkpglm.se

Control mark, issued for “legit beggars” in Copenhagen 1625

Martin Ericsson, Ph.D.Researcher at the Department of History, University of Lundmartin.ericsson@hist.lu.se

Rooms of those invisible…

The Apeln site in 1904 with tenements for several poor families, tucked away in former workshops and storehouses

Excavations in Jönköping, Sweden between 2004 and 2007.Sites originally being part of wealthy 17th century manufacture districtsRapid decline in status during the 19th centuryDescribed as “among the worst slum districts in the country” in 1936 Scene of numerous instances of social unrest, the latest (and most serious) was The Travellers Riots in 1948…

The Grand Project – a border fortress & manufactures

A new town built in the aftermath of the Kalmar War (1611-13). • Replaces a medieval town destroyed in 1612• Intended to become an important border fortress• A supply base for the Swedish army• A centre for strategic production to fulfil the needs of the Armed Forces• An administrative centre for a reformed, more efficient government

The New Jönköping becomes a major investment for the Swedish Crown in the 17th century

However, the plots and blocks allotted to the Royal Manufactures (firearms and cloth) eventually became low status districts in the town. It has been possible to follow this process of social decline in the 18th and 19th centuries through excavations and written sources

Collapse of an Empire& Devastating Fires

Aftermath of a catastrophe. Detail from an aquarelle painted a few months after the town fire of 1790.

The constant risk of disaster in a wooden town – photo from 1902.

Blocks destroyed by the fires of 1785 and 1790. 3/5 of the town gone…

1721 – The collapse of the Swedish Military Power results in rapid economic decline for Jönköping, a town based on a war economy.

18th century – Six major fires between 1690 and 1790. High quality building materials and craftsmanship becomes rare and expensive.

Consequence => grand residences built on properties along the Main Street / makeshift houses in what becomes low status areas.

Town fires

Tenements of the first wave immigrants…

I

IIIII

A tenement from the early 19th century. A secondary addition to a former storehouse. Total living space = 20 m2

I = entranceII = storageIII = room with wooden floor. Heated by a simple tile stove

Stable

Charcoal shed

Livin’ in the City

Bronze ingots – almost 23 kg of precious metal, forgotten in the dirt floor of a 19th century workshop.

The bottle – one way out…

1834 – Cholera in

Jönköping• 1/3 of the population

ill• 1/6 dies• 636 out of a total

population of 4200

A new structure of ownership in the aftermath of the epidemic:• Former properties of

craftsmen and merchants divided

• The new owners seldom have their professions defined

• They appear in the registers as “working-man”

• Unskilled labour becomes visible…

Rats and stock-fish – ingredients of daily life

Overpopulation, substandard living conditions, bad food, alcoholism and a low state of health…

Salt water fish for an inland town

Frekvens mellan arter i %baserad på NISP

Gadus morhua

Melanogrammus aeglefinus

Molva molva

Gadidae

Clupea harengus

Pleuronectidae

Anguilla anguilla

Salmonidae

Esox lucius

Perca fluviatilis

Rutilus rutilus

Herring

Ling

Haddock

Cod

While Lake Vättern is famous for its char (sp. Salvelinus)…

Stock fish!Cheap food for poor people

A Scene of Social Unrest

Axe and a crude execution block – left by the mob on the doorstep of the grain merchant Lindmans’ house as a subtle warning….

The Bread Riots of 1855• Escalating food prices• Caused by speculation in

the grain market during the Crimean War

• An urban population close to starvation

• Riots begin in September• Workers confront jobbing

merchants• Troops from the garrison

called in to stop the unrest• Severe punishment for the

insurgents

“A social misery of appaling extent”

Tanneries, tenement and dirty water. Photo from 1908

A report from the Swedish Residents’ Association, written in 1936 describes the situation in poor parts of Jönköping as “just terrible; without any equivalent in this country” • T.B. and a number of other diseases are shown to be

common among the population• At least 20% of the tenements are infested with

vermin• 30% of the tenements lack any form of heating• The sanitation is found to be substandard in the

district

Both the local social welfare board and the National Board of Health and Welfare initiated studies in Jönköping during the 1940s with the aim to define and examine the local population of Travellers (sv. Tattare). When the results were published in 1944 it became evident that no such distinctions could be made.However, social tensions and prejudice did remain…

Tattarkravallerna – the riots of 1948

Barbro Gustavsson and Birgitta Hellström. Aged 13 and 9 in the summer of 1948. Two targets for the riots…

Just an ordinary riot?…with strong support from the local leftist newspaper! A case of social engineering – not everyone is welcome into the post-war Paradise…

The Age of Urban Renewal

The old city centre in 1950 – a change is about to begin…

Get rid of the problem – as well as blocks of 18th century houses…

Instead of poverty and T.B. - shopping malls and parking lots

A kind of excuse – after 67 years…

The monument – “Here no-one needs to be afraid” 2014

Recognition through archaeology. Finds from the excavation of a travellers campsite at Snarsmon, western Sweden 2004-2007. A co-operation project.

Barbro Gustavsson and Birgitta Hellström in 2014. They finally received an official excuse from the municipal board of Jönköping.

Speeches and music, August 8th 2014

Here no-one needs to be afraid…????

August 12th – Sverigedemokraterna (SD) – election meetingAugust 27th – Svenskarnas Parti (SvP) – election meeting

Both meetings were held on the Hovrättstorget square, just a few meters away from the 1948 monument…

The reaction against xenophobia and having neo-Nazis in our streets was strong!

“Travellers in 2015” – a forgotten past?

The Eastern Square – scene of the riots in 1948 as it is today

Urban renewal

…and amnesia

How can we – as historians & archaeologists – deal with the painful narratives???