Gnadenhutten massacre illustration   Save
Ohio History Connection Archives/Library
Description: Illustration showing the massacre of American Indians led by Colonel David Williamson of the Pennsylvania militia. In 1772, Moravian missionaries founded a mission for American Indians in the Ohio Country at Schoenbrunn ("Beautiful Spring" in German). Because of its success, Rev. David Zeisberger founded a second village in the same year at Gnadenhutten ("Tents of Grace" in German). Life at Gnadenhutten was similar to life at Schoenbrunn. On March 8 and 9, 1782, a group of Pennsylvania militiamen under the command of Williamson attacked the mission and the American Indians on site in retaliation for the deaths and kidnappings of several white Pennsylvanians, although this particular group of so-called "Christian Delaware" had recently returned from their new outpost at Upper Sandusky to forage for crops, and had no connection to the Pennsylvania attack. In all, Williamson's men murdered 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children, and the village was burned. There were only two survivors, who informed Moravian missionaries and other American Indians as to what had occurred. This illustration comes from William Dean Howells' "Stories of Ohio" (1897). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07916
Subjects: Gnadenhutten Massacre; Moravian Church -- Missions -- Ohio; American Indians in Ohio; Delaware Indians -- History
Places: Gnadenhutten (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)