GNADENHUTTEN (MORAVIAN) MASSACRE OF LENAPE (DELAWARE) BY COLONIALS
In 1772, Moravian missionaries founded two missions for American Indians in the Ohio Country, at Schoenbrunn and at Gnadenhutten. During the American Revolution, the non-Christian Lenape supported England. The Christian Lenape tried to remain neutral. In 1781, British authorities ordered the Christian Lenape to abandon their villages and relocate in northern Ohio along the Sandusky River. Arriving at their new villages in the late fall, too late to plant crops, the Moravians and the Christian Lenape faced serious food shortages that winter. Hoping to alleviate their suffering, a group of Lenape went back to Gnadenhutten in March 1782, to harvest whatever crops remained in the fields. Mistakenly believing that these Delaware were responsible for recent raids in nearby Pennsylvania, militiamen attacked the village and brutally murdered them—28 men, 29 women, 39 children.
Source: “Gnaddenhutten,” Ohio History Central. Retrieved 6/6/2021, Gnadenhutten - Ohio History Central Photo: Kevin Myers, unknown date. Gnaddenhuttan Monument. Public Domain.
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