Lecture by Dr. Scott Gordon, Lehigh University
in person at the Moravian Archives; online via Zoom (for online participation, please fill out the form below)

This talk will offer a new account of how enslaved men and women were brought to Bethlehem, who owned enslaved men and women in Bethlehem, how some enslaved men and women became free in Bethlehem, and whether the lives of enslaved Moravians differed from those of free Moravians. Bethlehem’s authorities claimed that there was “no difference” between enslaved and free Moravians. But by amplifying the voices of Bethlehem’s enslaved and free Afro-Moravians, and by analyzing the neglected 1780 Register of enslaved persons in Northampton County, we can begin to see the difference that slavery made in the Moravian settlement of Bethlehem.