Casey and Kait discuss early interactions between Moravians and Native Americans in the South, including the complicated story of their efforts to establish a mission in Indian country.

This story begins in the 1730s with the first Moravian missionary efforts in the South and picks up in the 1750s when Moravians first met Cherokees and Native other groups in North Carolina. By 1801, Moravians finally succeeded in establishing the Springplace mission to the Cherokees (in modern-day Georgia)—but the period of 1752–1801 is often overlooked. Bethabara became a major destination for Cherokee leaders, and their interactions with Moravians there were important building blocks in what would later become a close bond. From the Anglo-Cherokee War through the Revolution and beyond, near-constant conflict prevented the Moravians from reaching out to Native people as they had envisioned. With the establishment of Springplace, Moravians in Wachovia were finally able to fulfill some of these goals—though not without further challenges.

Bibliography & Further Reading:

Bethlehem Digital History Project (multiple articles).

Fogleman, Aaron Spencer. Two Troubled Souls: An Eighteenth-Century Couple's Spiritual  Journey in the Atlantic World. University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

Fries, Adelaide L., ed. Records of the Moravians in North Carolina. Volumes 1-8.

McClinton, Rowena. The Moravian Springplace Mission to the Cherokees, Abridged Edition.        Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.

Music (freemusicarchive.org):

Allegretto (green pastures) by Dee Yan-Key (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

Grand Piano Theme - Echo - Loopable by Lobo Loco (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

On my Way to Work by Lobo Loco (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)