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Cottars, or Torpate.

The Swedish population increased rapidly during the 19th century and it had started already in the 18th. The old saying was that it depended on "freden, vaccinet och potaterna", the peace, the vaccination and the potatoes. Sweden's last war was in 1809, some primitive remedies had reached the people, for instance the vaccination against small pox, and people had started to grow potatoes.

Sweden was an agricultural county, everybody wanted land to provide for himself. Up to the end of the 18th century most people were farmers, who at least in good years had enough food and clothes, and mostly enough to give parties for wedding and funerals.

The population grew, however, what could all those people do who had no land? They started farming new land; land in clearings, in forests and at hills. Those people were called Torpare = cottars. But there were always landowners of the poor land areas as well. The cottars had a small field each, a small cottage and a small barn. They had to work for the landowners for the rent and farmers for their living. The fields were for the wives and children to farm. I would say that cottars were all poor.

Remarks and Photo by Swedish Researcher Kerstin Jonmyren.

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