David Zeisberger
| David Zeisberger | |
|---|---|
A caption on the print states that it is "From a portrait painted at the age of forty."
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| Born |
April 11, 1721 Zauchtenthal, Moravia (present day Suchdol nad Odrou, Czech Republic) |
| Died | November 17, 1808 (aged 87) (near Gnadenhutten, Ohio) |
| Occupation | Missionary, Clergyman, translator |
| Spouse(s) | Susanna Lecron |
| Parent(s) | David Zeisberger Rosina Zeisberger |
David Zeisberger (April 11, 1721 – November 17, 1808) was a Moravian clergyman and missionary among the Native Americans in the Thirteen Colonies. He established communities of Munsee (Lenape) converts to Christianity in the valley of the Muskingum River in Ohio; and for a time, near modern-day Amherstburg, Ontario.
Zeisberger was born in Zauchtenthal, Moravia (present day Suchdol nad Odrou in the Czech Republic) and moved with his family to the newly established Moravian Christian community of Herrnhut, on the estate of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf in the German Electorate of Saxony in 1727. However, when his family migrated to the newly established English colony in Georgia, Zeisberger remained in Europe to complete his education. In 1738, he came to Georgia in the United States, with the assistance of governor James Edward Oglethorpe. He later rejoined his family in the Moravian community at Savannah, Georgia. At the time, the United Brethren had begun a settlement, merely for the purpose of preaching the gospel to the Creek nation. From there he moved to Pennsylvania, and assisted at the commencment of the settlements of Nazareth and Bethlehem.
In 1739, Zeisberger was influential in the development of a Moravian community in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and was there at its dedication on Christmas Eve 1741. Four years later, at the invitation of Hendrick Theyanoguin, he came to live among the Mohawk. He became fluent in the Onondaga language and assisted Conrad Weiser in negotiating an alliance between the English and the Iroquois in Onondaga (near present-day Syracuse, New York). Zeisberger also produced dictionaries and religious works in Iroquoian and Algonquian.
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