Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
History
Committee Chair
Matthew Vester
Committee Co-Chair
Tyler Boulware
Committee Member
Tyler Boulware
Committee Member
Tamba M'bayo
Committee Member
Briane Turley
Committee Member
Kristofer Ray
Abstract
This dissertation explores community building during times of violence. I argue that the intense violence in Colonial Pennsylvania during the 1750s and 1760s did not prevent the Moravians from building multi-ethnic communities, even as other groups (French, British, and Iroquois) pursuing their own political gains sought to tear such communities apart. The project focuses on community building and cohesion during a time of violence. Both the Moravians and the Native Americans were marginalized outsiders in mid-eighteenth-century Pennsylvania. The Moravians were outsiders because they were Europeans who failed to integrate culturally with their European neighbors. The Delaware, Mohicans, and smaller Native American groups in Pennsylvania were outsiders because they were losing ground in the frontier and settlers were surrounding them. The violence of the North American conflict of the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763) placed these marginalized groups in a position where they were stronger together than they were apart. An analysis of the Moravian community diaries showed that the community interacted and connected over three shared principles: culture, experiences, and goals.
Recommended Citation
Mcgee, Megan Trent, "Schmick’S Frontier: Native American And Moravian Community Building In Colonial Pennsylvania, 1753-1765" (2018). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 3725.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3725