The Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger, 1772-1781 (review)

The dustjacket of this fine collection depicts an oil on canvas by C. Schussele with David Zeisberger standing before a campfire, preaching to a group of Indians. Zeisberger has his hands raised to spread the gospel. To his immediate right are two Indians, who by the cast of their countenances are overwhelmed by Christian spiritual powers; one native sits alone in the foreground with his back toward Zeisberger. Native American history in general, and mission history in particular, cannot be organized like Schussele's painting, with those who accommodated to Euro-Americans or Christianity set on one side of the fire and those who resisted somewhere on the other. The Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger provides further evidence of this fact. Hermann Wellenreuther and Carola Wessel have presented the first English version of this particular set of Zeisberger diaries. They comprise amazing materials spanning the years from 1772 to 1781. Until this edition, the diaries, housed in the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, were too often overlooked by historians.

Zeisberger did more than proselytize. As a cultural broker of sorts, he maneuvered through the complicated world of Indian diplomacy and was honored in 1745 by the Onondaga leader, Shikellemi, with the name Ganusseracheri (Anouserácheri). Zeisberger was also well aware of which Indians were "enemies" of Moravian missions (81). These diaries thus contain a treasure trove of ethnohistorical information on Iroquois, Delawares, Shawnees, and other Indians in one corner of the pays d'en haut, the region Richard White brilliantly portrayed as the "middle ground." In his diaries, Zeisberger recorded his work laboring among several mission towns in the upper Ohio Valley as the middle ground continued to spiral out of control with the American Revolution. Once they are thoroughly explored and integrated into the literature, The Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger will influence and reshape historians' views of a vast territory and its diverse Indian villages during a turbulent period of history.

Scholars of Native America will find little new in Wellenreuther's introduction, though this general survey of the key players, places, and events will be of value to someone new to the field. He does not place the diaries within the vast literature on eighteenth-century missionaries and Native Americans, going only so far as to suggest that the important works by Gregory Evans Dowd, James H. Merrell, and Michael N. McConnell have "made only superficial use of these diaries" (78). A statement as to what these scholars have missed would have strengthened the value of the collection. While Earl P. Olmstead's biography on Zeisberger borders on hagiography, Amy C. Schutt's published works have done an excellent job of analyzing Christian conversion and education within Moravian-run mission communities in the time of Zeisberger.

Notwithstanding the exclusion of a thorough and penetrating analysis of the present state of the historical literature, Wellenreuther manages to situate the diaries adequately within the context of their creator and the indigenous environs in which he operated. Wellenreuther's observation that Zeisberger took his self-representation seriously because he expected other Moravians to read his diaries gives researchers a baseline from which to evaluate the merits of the entries. Wellenreuther's discussion of the various cultural and linguistic groups in Ohio (and western Pennsylvania) and the events preceding Zeisberger's arrival also provides a general perspective on why this part of Indian country was such a hard place to live and work.

What makes this collection all the more noteworthy is the impressive editorial work that accompanies the text along with the register of personal names and index of places. Wellenreuther and Wessel provide footnotes enriched with key information derived from other Moravian materials, primary sources, and secondary sources. At the bottom of each page are short biographies of missionaries and Indians, roles of natives within their particular communities, dates of Indian conversions, succinct analysis of Moravian religious precepts and practices...