A Religious Encounter: John Woolman and David Zeisberger Ralph H. Pickett* The paths of John Woolman and David Zeisberger crossed in June of 1763 in an Indian village. The lives of these two men present interesting parallels and contrasts. Woolman's predominant concern was the wrongfulness of slavery, while Zeisberger's was Christianization of Indians. The two men were alike in their piety, their singlemindedness , their perseverance, and their courage. John Woolman was probably the outstanding eighteenth-century member of the Religious Society of Friends. Born in 1720, in Burlington County, New Jersey, he was from his childhood preoccupied with religious matters. By 1743 his sense of the wrongfulness of slavery had become strong. The following year he made the first of his many religious journeys. On a visit to England in 1772 he died of smallpox.1 The Church of the Bohemian Brethren (now usually called the Moravian Church) into which David Zeisberger was baptized after his birth April 11, 1721, in a village in eastern Moravia, had early fifteenth-century origins with John Huss. Because of persecution the Zeisberger family moved in 1726 to Herrnhut, Saxony, a place of refuge provided by Count Nicholas Zinzendorf. David migrated to America in 1736 and came in 1740 to a Moravian settlement some sixty miles north of Philadelphia, which Zinzendorf, temporarily there in 1741, named Bethlehem. Zeisberger was deeply embued with belief in Christ's propitiation for his and all mankind's sins. In 1743 he decided to devote his life to converting Indians to Christianity, an enterprise which Moravians had already started. Until he died November 17, 1808, he was almost constantly and quite successfully engaged in this work in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada. A sideline of his work was preparation of grammars and spelling books of several Iroquois and Delaware dialects, as well as translations of hymns.2 *Ralph H. Pickett received a doctorate in European history from the University of Pennsylvania, and taught history on the college level 1933-1972. He lives near Media, PA, and is a member of Providence Friends Meeting. 1.John Woolman, The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, ed. Phillips P. Moulton (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971) "Chronology" 17-20. This edition cited hereafter simply as: Woolman, Journal. 2.Edmund De Schweinitz, The Life and Times of David Zeisberger (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Co., 1870). These 747 pages provide much 78Quaker History The contrast between Woolman's and Zeisberger's religious beliefs is significant. "Theologically, Woolman stood in the main stream of the Christian evangelical tradition. His doctrine was orthodox."3 He mentioned Roman Catholic Thomas à Kempis and heretic John Huss as "both sincere-hearted followers of Christ."4 Woolman used such terms as "Truth," "great awe," "Supreme Wisdom," "pure guidance of the Holy Spirit," and "standard of pure righteousness" as often as traditional Christian evangelical phrases. Thus Woolman's religion, while orthodox Protestantism, included an element of mysticism. There was no such duality with Zeisberger. While his biographer Edmund De Schweinitz usually does not include texts of his sermons , his message to the Iroquois and Delaware Indians was unmistakably clear: Christ died for sinners, who can be saved by belief in His saving power. His preaching was effective, often producing tears of contrition and creating a sense of salvation which turned remorse into joy. Significant though not stressed usually by De Schweinitz was Zeisberger's inclusion of pacifism (as was also true of Woolman), a strong belief of eighteenth-century Moravians.5 Nowhere can one find greater courage and devotion to nonviolence than in the massacres of non-resisting Moravian Indians who had been fierce warriors. The third element in the dramatic events of June 1763 was an Indian community and especially its leader Papunhank (the spelling varies). The community's village was on the left bank of the upper Susquehanna River, near the present Wyalusing, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Led by Papunhank, these Indians strictly prohibited the use of liquor. It was a fertile spot where corn grew plentifully, while game and fish were abundant. The village was founded in 1760 or sooner by Papunhank. The inhabitants were of the Monsey branch of the Delawares...