Gnadenhutten Massacre
On March 8 and 9, 1782, a group of Pennsylvania militiamen under the command of Captain David Williamson attacked the Moravian Church mission founded by David Zeisberger at Gnadenhutten. The Americans attacked the natives in retaliation for the deaths and kidnappings of several white Pennsylvanians. Although the militiamen attacked the Christian Indians, these Native Americans had not been involved in the previous incidents. The Christian Delawares had abandoned Gnadenhutten the year before, but some of them had returned to harvest crops that were still in the fields.
On March 8, the militiamen arrived at Gnadenhutten. Accusing the natives of the attack on the Pennsylvania settlements, the soldiers rounded them up and placed the men and women in separate buildings in the abandoned village overnight. The militiamen then voted to execute their captives the following morning. Informed of their impending deaths, the Christian Delawares spent the night praying and singing hymns. The next morning the soldiers took the natives in pairs to a cabin and killed them. In all, Williamson's men murdered twenty-eight men, twenty-nine women, and thirty-nine children. There were only two survivors, who informed the Moravian missionaries and other Christian Indians as to what had occurred.
References and Suggested Reading
- Barr, Daniel P., ed. The Boundaries Between Us: Natives and Newcomers Along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006. - Available from Amazon.com
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
- Howells, William Dean. Three Villages. Boston, MA: J. R. Osgood and Company, 1884.
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Olmstead, Earl P. Blackcoats Among the Delaware: David Zeisberger on the Ohio Frontier. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1991 - Available from Amazon.com
- Olmstead, Earl P. David Zeisberger: A Life Among the Indians. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1997. - Available from Amazon.com
- Rice, William H. David Zeisberger and His Brown Brethren. Bethlehem, PA: Moravian Publication Concern, 1908. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998. - Available from Amazon.com
- Wapatomika Productions. Moravian Massacre. Berkeley, CA: University of California Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1996.
- Zeisberger, David. Schoenbrunn Story: Excerpts from the Diary of the Reverend David Zeisberger, 1772-1777, at Schoenbrunn in the Ohio Country. Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1972.
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Citation
"Gnadenhutten Massacre", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=499
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