Apostle to the Indians
David Zeisberger 1721 - 1808

August 15-18, 2010

Historic Bethabara Park will host a travelling exhibition entitled Apostle to the Indians, David Zeisberger 1721-1808, from August 15 to August 18, 2010, at the Edwin L.Stockton, Sr. Visitor Center.

Exhibit hours are

• 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 15th
• 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Tuesday and Wednesday, August 17th and 18th

Apostle to the Indians has previously travelled to Lititz, PA, New York City, Herrnhut, Germany, and the Czech Republic. The exhibit is free.

The Moravian clergyman David Zeisberger was an influential figure in the Wachovia Tract, which he visited on several occasions. Zeisberger was born in the present day Czech Republic in 1721. He lived with his family in Moravia until they were exiled to the Moravian Christian community of Herrnhut, where they were given asylum in 1727 on the Saxony estate of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf. He travelled to America in 1738 to the Moravian colony in Savannah, Georgia, and to Bethlehem, PA, in 1740, where he assisted in the building of Bethlehem and Nazareth. Zeisberger served as a missionary to the Delaware and Iroquois Indians for more than 65 years. Proficient in languages and fluent in the Onondaga Iroquoian dialect, he served as an interpreter during the French and Indian War and was the interpreter for the peace treaty established between the Iroquois and the the British government. He was instrumental in the signing of the Treaty of Easton in 1758, which brought peace to eastern Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and the Treaty of Pittsburgh in 1778, the first treaty of the American government with an indigenous nation.

Zeisberger was an advocate of Native Americans' rights and attempted to establish white and Native Moravian settlements in southern Ohio. This brought him into conflict with the British during the American Revolution and, in 1781, he was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Detroit. While he was under arrest, about 100 of his Native converts were murdered by militiamen in Ohio. This event became known as the Gnadenhutten Massacre.

Following his release, Zeisberger lived among his Native American converts In Ohio, where he died in 1808.