Early Moravian Settlements in America

Abstract

In Pennsylvania, foremost of the primitive commonwealths of the United States in presenting conditions favorable to many kinds of undertakings, Moravians effected their first permanent settlements in America. William Perm had contemplated as his “holy experiment” a Quaker colony within which all religions should be tolerated. The scheme of peace with freedom, however, very soon produced a condition of turmoil. At the outset, co-religionists of the founder came to Pennsylvania in such numbers as to give them preponderance in the affairs of the colony. Then, in response to the generous offers of Penn, that Teutonic immigration began which threatened, at one time, to make Perm's colony alien from his countrymen. These emigrants to the colony did not come from those parts of Europe where the Christians were all of one way of worshipping. They were persecuted refugees of all sorts. For the most part, they held the idea that religious liberty was the greatest boon to be sought. But they were not capable of using it peaceably. Accustomed to look upon all authority in state or church as tyranny, they fell readily under the influence of agitators and adventurers who could not be kept out of the Province and whose presence caused Pennsylvania to be somewhat intemperately called “the greatest refuge for pirates and rogues in Ameri-ca.” Confusion and strife resulted and prevailed most conspicuously in the domain of religion.