Produced by A. Light
THE MORAVIANS IN GEORGIA
1735-1740
by Adelaide L. Fries
(Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are capitalized. A few
obvious errors have been corrected. Many German names with umlauts have
had the umlaut replaced with an ‘e’ following the vowel (according to
standard form) due to the limitations of ASCII. These names are noted in
the Index.)
Winston-Salem, N. C.
Preface.
In the life of any individual, association, or nation, there will
probably be one or more occurrences which may be considered as success
or failure according to the dramatic features of the event and the
ultimate results. Of this the Battle of Bunker Hill is a striking
example. On the morning of June 17th, 1775, a force of British soldiers
attacked a small body of raw, ill-equipped American volunteers, who
had fortified a hill near Boston, and quickly drove them from their
position. By whom then was the Bunker Hill Monument erected? By the
victors in that first engagement of the Revolution? No, but by proud
descendants of the vanquished, whose broader view showed them
the incalculable benefits arising from that seeming defeat, which
precipitated the great struggle, forcing every man in the Colonies to
take a position squarely for or against the American Cause, convinced
the timid that only proper equipment would be needed to enable the
American army to hold its own against the foe, and taught the British
that they were dealing, not with hot-headed rebels who would run at
first sight of the dreaded “red coats”, but with patriots who would
stand their ground so long as a charge of powder remained, or gunstocks
could be handled as clubs.
Very much the same line of argument may be applied to the first attempt
of the Moravian Church to establish a settlement on the American
Continent. The story is usually passed over by historians in a few short
paragraphs, and yet without the colony in Georgia, the whole history of
the Renewed Church of the Unitas Fratrum would have been very different.
Without that movement the Moravian Church might never have been
established in England, without it the great Methodist denomination
might never have come into being, without it the American Moravian
provinces, North or South, might not have been planned. Of course
Providence might have provided other means for the accomplishment of
these ends, but certain it is that in the actual development of all
these things the “unsuccessful attempt” in Georgia, 1735 to 1740, played
a most important part.
In preparing this history a number of private libraries, the collections
of the Georgia Historical Society, the Congressional Library, the
British Museum, were searched for data, but so little was found that
the story, in so far as it relates to the Moravian settlement, has been
drawn entirely from the original manuscripts in the Archives of the
Unitas Fratrum at Herrnhut, Germany, with some additions from the
Archives at Bethlehem, Pa., and Salem, N. C. For the general history of
Georgia, of the Moravian Church, and of the Wesleys, Steven’s History of
Georgia, Hamilton’s History of the Moravian Church, Levering’s History
of Bethlehem, Pa., Some Fathers of the American Moravian Church, by
de Schweinitz, Strobel’s History of the Salzburgers, Tyreman’s Oxford
Methodists, and Wesley’s Journal have been most largely used.
The history of the Moravian settlement in Georgia falls into that period
when dates are much confused through the contemporaneous use of the old
style, or Julian calendar, and the new style, or Gregorian calendar. As
the latter is now current everywhere, except in Russia and the Orient,
it is here employed throughout, old style dates being translated where
they occur in the records.
Special thanks are due to Rev. A. Glitsch, Archivist at Herrnhut,
for courtesies extended while the author was examining the invaluable
collection of papers entrusted to his care, and also for his supervision
of the copying of such documents as were selected; to Mr. Isaac Beckett,
of Savannah, for information respecting the Moravian lands; to Mr. John
Jordan, of Philadelphia, for copies of deeds and other papers relating
to the settlement; to Mr. W. S. Pfohl, of Salem, for assistance with the
illustrations; and to Mr. John W. Fries for suggestion and inspiration
for the work, and the constant encouragement and sympathetic interest
without which the author’s courage would have failed during the tedious
years of gathering material for the book, which is now presented
to those who may find in it something of explanation, something of
interest, concerning the Moravian settlement in Georgia, and the broader
history which the story touches on every side.
Adelaide L. Fries.
August, 1904.
Table of Contents.
Chapter I. Antecedent Events.
The Province of Georgia.
The Salzburgers.
Unitas Fratrum.
Halle Opposition.
Chapter II. Negotiations with the Trustees of Georgia.
The Schwenkfelders.
Preliminary Steps.
The “First Company”.
Chapter III. The First Year in Georgia.
The Voyage.
Making a Start.
Aim and Attainment.
Chapter IV. Reinforcements.
The “Second Company”.
Four Journals.
Organization.
Chapter V. The Second Year in Georgia.
The English Clergymen.
Work Among the Indians.
The “Society”.
Rumors of War.
Chapter VI. Disintegration.
Spangenberg’s Visit.
A Closing Door.
Wesley, Ingham and Toeltschig.
The Negro Mission.
Chapter VII. Conclusion.
Later Attempts in Georgia.
The Savannah Lands.
Arrivals, Departures, Deaths.
Summary.
THE MORAVIANS IN GEORGIA, 1735-1740.
Chapter I. Antecedent Events.
The Province of Georgia.
It was in the year 1728 that the English Parliament was persuaded by
James Oglethorpe, Esq.--soldier, statesman and philanthropist,--to
appoint a committee to investigate the condition of the debtors confined
in the Fleet and Marchalsea prisons. The lot of these debtors was a
most pitiable one, for a creditor had power to imprison a man for an
indefinite term of years, and the unfortunate debtor, held within the
four walls of his prison, could earn no money to pay the debt that was
owing, and unless friends came to his rescue, was utterly at the
mercy of the oft-times barbarous jailor. The Committee, consisting of
ninety-six prominent men, with Oglethorpe as Chairman, recommended and
secured the redress of many grievances, and the passing of better laws
for the future, but Oglethorpe and a few associates conceived a plan
which they thought would eradicate the evil by striking at its very
root, the difficulty which many found in earning a living in the
overcrowded cities.
In 1663 King Charles II. had granted to eight “Lords Proprietors” the
portion of North America lying between the 31st and 36th degrees of
latitude, enlarging the boundaries in 1665 to 29 deg. and 36 deg. 30
min. By 1728 most of these Lords Proprietors had tired of their attempt
to govern the colonies they had established in “Carolina”, and in
1729 seven of the eight sold their interest to the English crown, the
district being divided into “North Carolina”, “South Carolina”, and a
more southerly portion, nominally included in the latter, which was held
in reserve.
To this unused land the thoughts of Oglethorpe turned, and he and his
friends addressed a memorial to the Privy Council, stating “that the
cities of London, Westminster, and parts adjacent, do abound with great
numbers of indigent persons, who are reduced to such necessity as to
become burthensome to the public, and who would be willing to seek a
livelihood in any of his majesty’s plantations in America, if they were
provided with a passage, and means of settling there.” They therefore
asked for a grant of land lying south of the Savannah River, where they
wished to establish a colony in which these unfortunate men might begin
life anew, and where Protestants, persecuted in some parts of Europe,
might find a refuge. They also offered to take entire charge of the
affair, and their petition, after passing through the usual channels,
was approved by the King, George II, a charter was prepared, and the
great seal was affixed June 9th, 1732.
This instrument constituted twenty-one noblemen and gentlemen a body
corporate, by the name and style of “The Trustees for establishing the
Colony of Georgia in America”, and in them was vested full authority for
the collecting of subscriptions and the expending of moneys gathered,
the selection of colonists, and the making and administering of laws
in Georgia; but no member of the corporation was allowed to receive
a salary, or any fees, or to hold land in the new province. The
undertaking was to be strictly for the good of others, not for their
own pecuniary benefit. The charter granted to them “all those lands,
countries, and territories situate, lying and being in that part of
South Carolina, in America” between the Savannah and Altamaha, gave them
permission to take over any British subjects, or foreigners willing to
become such, and guaranteed to each settler the rights of an English
subject, and full liberty of conscience,--Papists alone excepted. This
apparently pointed exception was natural enough, since from a political
standpoint the new colony was regarded as a valuable guard for the
Protestant English Colonies on the north, against the Indians and
Roman Catholic colonists to the south, who had been keeping the border
settlers in a continual state of uneasiness, even in times of nominal
peace. Moreover England had not forgotten the terrible experience of
the latter half of the preceding century, when it was war to the death
between Catholic and Protestant, and the latter party being the stronger
the former was subjected to great and unpardonable persecution, many
were executed, and all holding that faith were laid under political
disabilities which lasted for a hundred and fifty years.
The plans of the Trustees were very broad. They intended “to relieve
such unfortunate persons as cannot subsist here, and establish them in
an orderly manner, so as to form a well regulated town. As far as their
fund goes they will defray the charge of their passage to Georgia--give
them necessaries, cattle, land, and subsistence, till such time as they
can build their houses and clear some of their land.” In this manner
“many families who would otherwise starve will be provided for, and
made masters of houses and lands; * * * and by giving refuge to the
distressed Salzburgers and other Protestants, the power of Britain, as a
reward for its hospitality, will be increased by the addition of so many
religious and industrious subjects.”
Each of the emigrants was to receive about fifty acres of land,
including a town lot, a garden of five acres, and a forty-five acre
farm, and the Trustees offered to give a tract of five hundred acres to
any well-to-do man who would go over at his own expense, taking with
him at least ten servants, and promising his military service in case of
need.
But there was a commercial as well as a benevolent side to the designs
of the Trustees, for they thought Georgia could be made to furnish silk,
wine, oil and drugs in large quantities, the importing of which would
keep thousands of pounds sterling in English hands which had hitherto
gone to China, Persia and the Madeiras. Special provision was therefore
made to secure the planting of mulberry trees as the first step towards
silk culture, the other branches to be introduced as speedily as might
be.
Filled with enthusiasm for their plan, the Trustees proceeded to spread
abroad the most glowing descriptions of the country where the new colony
was to be settled.
“The kind spring, which but salutes us here,
Inhabits there, and courts them all the year.
Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live--
At once they promise, when at once they give.
So sweet the air, so moderate the clime,
None sickly lives, or dies before his time.
Heaven, sure, has kept this spot of earth uncurst,
To shew how all things were created first.”
So wrote Oglethorpe, quoting the lines as the best pen picture he could
give of the new land, and truly, if the colonists found the reality less
roseate than they anticipated, it was not the fault of their generous,
energetic leader, who spared neither pains nor means in his effort to
make all things work out as his imagination had painted them.
The Trustees having, with great care, selected thirty-five families from
the number who wished to go, the first emigrant ship sailed for Georgia
in November, 1732, bearing about one hundred and twenty-five “sober,
industrious and moral persons”, and all needful stores for the
establishment of the colony. Early in the following year they reached
America, and Oglethorpe, having chosen a high bluff on the southern bank
of the Savannah River, concluded a satisfactory treaty with Tomochichi,
the chief of the nearest Indian tribe, which was later ratified in a
full Council of the chiefs of all the Lower Creeks. His fairness and
courteous treatment won the hearts of all, especially of Tomochichi and
his people, who for many years remained on the best of terms with the
town which was now laid out upon the bluff.
The Salzburgers.
The Salzburgers, referred to by name in the proposals of the Georgia
Trustees, were, at this time, very much upon the mind and heart of
Protestant Europe. They were Germans, belonging to the Archbishopric of
Salzburg, then the most eastern district of Bavaria, but now a province
of Austria. “Their ancestors, the Vallenges of Piedmont, had been
compelled by the barbarities of the Dukes of Savoy to find a shelter
from the storms of persecution in the Alpine passes and vales of
Salzburg and the Tyrol, before the Reformation; and frequently since,
they had been hunted out by the hirelings and soldiery of the Church of
Rome, and condemned for their faith to tortures of the most cruel
and revolting kind. In 1684-6, they were again threatened with an
exterminating persecution; but were saved in part by the intervention
of the Protestant States of Saxony and Brandenburg, though more than a
thousand emigrated on account of the dangers to which they were exposed.
“But the quietness which they then enjoyed for nearly half a century
was rudely broken in upon by Leopold, Count of Firmian and Archbishop of
Salzburg, who determined to reduce them to the Papal faith and power.
He began in the year 1729, and ere he ended in 1732 not far from thirty
thousand had been driven from their homes, to seek among the Protestant
States of Europe that charity and peace which were denied them in the
glens and fastnesses of their native Alps.
“The march of these Salzburgers constitutes an epoch in the history of
Germany. * * * Arriving at Augsburg, the magistrates closed the gates
against them, refusing them entrance to that city which, two hundred
years before, through Luther and Melancthon and in the presence of
Charles V and the assembled Princes of Germany, had given birth to the
celebrated Augsburg Confession, for clinging to which the Salzburgers
were now driven from their homes; but overawed by the Protestants, the
officers reluctantly admitted the emigrants, who were kindly entertained
by the Lutherans.
“The sympathies of Reformed Christendom were awakened on their behalf,
and the most hospitable entertainment and assistance were everywhere
given them.” Only a few months after the signing of the Georgia Colony
Charter, the “Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge”
requested the Trustees to include the Salzburgers in their plans. The
Trustees expressed their willingness to grant lands, and to manage any
money given toward their expenses, but stated that they then held no
funds which were available for that purpose.
In May, 1733, the House of Commons appropriated 10,000 Pounds to the
Trustees of Georgia, “to be applied towards defraying the charges
of carrying over and settling foreign and other Protestants in said
colony,” and over 3,000 Pounds additional having been given privately,
the Trustees, at the suggestion of Herr von Pfeil, consul of Wittenberg
at Regensberg, wrote to Senior Samuel Urlsperger, pastor of the Lutheran
Church of St. Ann in the city of Augsburg, who had been very kind to
the Salzburgers on their arrival there, “and ever afterward watched over
their welfare with the solicitude of an affectionate father.” On receipt
of the invitation from the Trustees, seventy-eight persons decided to go
to Georgia, and left Augsburg on the 21st of October, reaching Rotterdam
the 27th of November, where they were joined by two ministers, Rev. Mr.
Bolzius, deputy superintendent of the Latin Orphan School at Halle,
and Rev. Mr. Gronau, a tutor in the same, who were to accompany them to
their new home. In England they were treated with marked kindness, and
when they sailed, January 19, 1734, it was with the promise of free
transportation to Georgia, and support there until they could reap their
first harvest from the fifty acres which were to be given to each man
among them.
They reached Charlestown, South Carolina, the following March, and
met General Oglethorpe, the Governor of Georgia, who was intending an
immediate return to Europe, but went back to help them select a suitable
place for their settlement, they preferring not to live in Savannah
itself. The site chosen was about twenty-five miles from Savannah, on
a large stream flowing into the Savannah River, and there they laid out
their town, calling it “Ebenezer”, in grateful remembrance of the Divine
help that had brought them thither. Baron von Reck, who had accompanied
them as Commissary of the Trustees, stayed with them until they had made
a good beginning, and then returned to Europe, leaving Ebenezer about
the middle of May.
Unitas Fratrum.
But while the Salzburgers received so much sympathy and kindness in
Germany on account of their distress, other exiled Protestants, whose
story was no less touching, were being treated with scant courtesy and
consideration.
On the 6th of July, 1415, the Bohemian Reformer, John Hus, was burned at
the stake. But those who had silenced him could not unsay his message,
and at last there drew together a little body of earnest men, who agreed
to accept the Bible as their only standard of faith and practice, and
established a strict discipline which should keep their lives in the
simplicity, purity, and brotherly love of the early Apostolic Church.
This was in 1457, and the movement quickly interested the thoughtful
people in all classes of society, many of whom joined their ranks.
The formal organization of the Unitas Fratrum (the Unity of Brethren)
followed, and its preaching, theological publications, and educational
work soon raised it to great influence in Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland,
friendly intercourse being established with Luther, Calvin, and other
Reformers as they became prominent.
Then came destruction, when the religious liberty of Bohemia and Moravia
was extinguished in blood, by the Church of Rome. The great Comenius
went forth, a wanderer on the face of the earth, welcomed and honored
in courts and universities, introducing new educational principles that
revolutionized methods of teaching, but ever longing and praying for the
restoration of his Church; and by his publication of its Doctrine and
Rules of Discipline, and by his careful transmission of the Episcopate
which had been bestowed upon him and his associate Bishops, he did
contribute largely to that renewal which he was not destined to see.
In the home lands there were many who held secretly, tenaciously,
desperately, to the doctrines they loved, “in hope against hope” that
the great oppression would be lifted. But the passing of a hundred years
brought no relief, concessions granted to others were still denied
to the children of those who had been the first “protestants” against
religious slavery and corruption, and in 1722 a small company of
descendants of the ancient Unitas Fratrum slipped over the borders of
Moravia, and went to Saxony, Nicholas Lewis, Count Zinzendorf, having
given them permission to sojourn on his estates until they could find
suitable homes elsewhere.
Hearing that they had reached a place of safety, other Moravians took
their lives in their hands and followed, risking the imprisonment and
torture which were sure to follow an unsuccessful attempt to leave a
province, the Government of which would neither allow them to be happy
at home nor to sacrifice everything and go away. Among these emigrants
were five young men, who went in May, 1724, with the avowed intention
of trying to resuscitate the Unitas Fratrum. They intended to go into
Poland, where the organization of the Unitas Fratrum had lasted for a
considerable time after its ruin in Bohemia, but, almost by accident,
they decided to first visit Christian David, who had led the first
company to Herrnhut, Saxony, and while there they became convinced
that God meant them to throw in their lot with these refugees, and so
remained, coming to be strong leaders in the renewed Unity.
Several years, however, elapsed before the church was re-established.
One hundred years of persecution had left the Moravians only traditions
of the usages of the fathers, members of other sects who were in trouble
came and settled among them, bringing diverse views, and things were
threatening to become very much involved, when Count Zinzendorf, who
had hitherto paid little attention to them, awoke to the realization of
their danger, and at once set to work to help them.
It was no easy task which he undertook, for the Moravians insisted on
retaining their ancient discipline, and he must needs try to please
them and at the same time preserve the bond of union with the State
Church,--the Lutheran,--of which, as his tenants, they were officially
considered members. His tact and great personal magnetism at last healed
the differences which had sprung up between the settlers, the opportune
finding of Comenius’ ‘Ratio Disciplinae’ enabled them with certainty to
formulate rules that agreed with those of the ancient Unitas Fratrum,
and a marked outpouring of the Holy Spirit at a Communion, August 13th,
1727, sealed the renewal of the Church.
“They walked with God in peace and love,
But failed with one another;
While sternly for the faith they strove,
Brother fell out with brother;
But He in Whom they put their trust,
Who knew their frames, that they were dust,
Pitied and healed their weakness.
“He found them in His House of prayer,
With one accord assembled,
And so revealed His presence there,
They wept for joy and trembled;
One cup they drank, one bread they brake,
One baptism shared, one language spake,
Forgiving and forgiven.
“Then forth they went with tongues of flame
In one blest theme delighting,
The love of Jesus and His Name
God’s children all uniting!
That love our theme and watchword still;
That law of love may we fulfill,
And love as we are loved.”
(Montgomery.)
At this time there was no thought of separating from the State Church
and establishing a distinct denomination, and Zinzendorf believed that
the Unitas Fratrum could exist as a ‘society’ working in, and in harmony
with, the State Church of whatever nation it might enter. This idea,
borrowed probably from Spener’s “ecclesiolae in ecclesia”, clung to
him, even after circumstances had forced the Unity to declare its
independence and the validity of the ordination of its ministry, and
many otherwise inexplicable things in the later policy of the Church may
be traced to its influence.
Halle Opposition.
In 1734 Zinzendorf took orders in the Lutheran Church, but this, and
all that preceded it, seemed to augment rather than quiet the antagonism
which the development of Herrnhut aroused in certain quarters. This
opposition was not universal. The Moravians had many warm friends and
advocates at the Saxon Court, at the Universities of Jena and Tuebingen,
and elsewhere, but they also had active enemies who drew their
inspiration principally from the University of Halle.
The opposition of Halle seems to have been largely prompted by jealousy.
In 1666 a revolt against the prevailing cold formalism of the Lutheran
Church was begun by Philip Jacob Spener, a minister of that Church,
who strongly urged the need for real personal piety on the part of each
individual. His ideas were warmly received by some, and disliked by
others, who stigmatized Spener and his disciples as “Pietists”, but
the doctrine spread, and in the course of time the University of
Halle became its centre. Among those who were greatly attracted by the
movement were Count Zinzendorf’s parents and grandparents, and when he
was born, May 26th, 1700, Spener was selected as his sponsor.
Being of a warm-hearted, devout nature, young Zinzendorf yielded readily
to the influence of his pious grandmother, to whose care he was left
after his father’s death and his mother’s second marriage, and by her
wish he entered the Paedagogium at Halle in 1710, remaining there
six years. Then his uncle, fearing that he would become a religious
enthusiast, sent him to the University of Wittenberg, with strict orders
to apply himself to the study of law. Here he learned to recognize the
good side of the Wittenberg divines, who were decried by Halle, and
tried to bring the two Universities to a better understanding, but
without result.
In 1719 he was sent on an extensive foreign tour, according to custom,
and in the picture gallery of Duesseldorf saw an Ecce Homo with its
inscription “This have I done for thee, what hast thou done for me?”
which settled him forever in his determination to devote his whole life
to the service of Christ.
Rather against his wishes, Count Zinzendorf then took office under the
Saxon Government, but about the same time he bought from his grandmother
the estate of Berthelsdorf, desiring to establish a centre of piety,
resembling Halle. The coming of the Moravian and other refugees and
their settlement at Herrnhut, near Berthelsdorf, was to him at first
only an incident; but as their industry and the preaching of Pastor
Rothe, whom he had put in charge of the Berthelsdorf Lutheran Church,
began to attract attention, he went to Halle, expecting sympathy from
his friends there. Instead he met with rebuke and disapproval, the
leaders resenting the fact that he had not placed the work directly
under their control, and apparently realizing, as he did not, that the
movement would probably lead to the establishment of a separate church.
In spite of their disapprobation, the work at Herrnhut prospered, and
the more it increased the fiercer their resentment grew. That they,
who had gained their name from their advocacy of the need for personal
piety, should have been foremost in opposing a man whose piety was his
strongest characteristic, and a people who for three hundred years, in
prosperity and adversity, in danger, torture and exile, had held “Christ
and Him Crucified” as their Confession of Faith, and pure and simple
living for His sake as their object in life, is one of the ironies of
history.
Nor did the Halle party confine itself to criticism. Some years later
Zinzendorf was for a time driven into exile, and narrowly escaped the
confiscation of all his property, while its methods of obstructing the
missionary and colonizing efforts of the Moravians will appear in the
further history of the Georgia colony.