As this year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence we will be publishing a series of monthly posts highlighting collection materials that illuminates different aspects of the lives and activities of Moravians during this tumultuous period in history. Some aspects of this are already fairly well known, but we hope to also highlight some lesser-known aspects of the Moravians and their involvement in American independence.

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While the Moravians generally wished to live separately from their neighbors, believing that they were called to focus on their religious lives and missionary work, they nonetheless were well aware of the impossibility of total separation and the potential danger the world outside their community posed, and they were willing to use their contacts with prominent individuals to promote their interests. One fascinating example of this kind of networking can be seen in this exchange between Moravian bishop Nathaniel Seidel and the famous politician and scientist Benjamin Franklin.

The letter below (left) was sent by Nathaniel Seidel to Benjamin Franklin in May, 1775, shortly after Franklin’s return from England [1]. In it he informs Franklin, who had visited Bethlehem several times in the 1750s and knew Seidel’s predecessor Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg, that the Moravians were facing harassment and threats of violence from their neighbors. This animosity was primarily sparked by the Moravian’s pacifistic beliefs and resulting refusal to join the fighting against the British. Seidel asks Franklin to act as an advocate on their behalf, stating “we should think ourselves extreme unhappy if the Struggle for Liberty should cost us our Liberty of Concious [sic].”

The letter shown to the right is Benjamin Franklin’s response, sent on June 2nd, 1775. In it he assures Seidel that he did not believe that the Continental Congress would tolerate or encourage any harassment of the Moravians and that “I shall on every Occasion exert myself to discountenance and prevent such infamous Practices.” However, he went on to suggest that it would help the Moravian’s reputation with their neighbors if they made a public statement that while their beliefs did not allow them to see their members forced into military service, they would not stop any members who chose to train with local militias for the community’s defense. This conflict between the Moravian’s pacifism and desire to minimize their involvement with the wider world would continue to be a source of contention, both with their neighbors and within the Moravian Church itself, as its members often disagreed about which side of the Revolutionary War they favored and how involved they wished to be.

We hope you will join us next month when we will continue in this vein with a look at a Moravian who, despite the opposition of Moravian leaders, chose to be actively involved in the Colonial government and military.

[1] Franklin had been dismissed from his position as postmaster-general of British North America, in July the Continental Congress established the United States Post Office and appointed Franklin as postmaster-general

Resources:

• Print of portrait of Benjamin Franklin, DP f.009.14, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem

• Copy of a letter from Nathanael Seidel to Benjamin Franklin, PP EJ 1556, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem

• Letter from Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia to Nathaniel Seidel in Bethlehem, SB 38.056, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem

Further Reading:

If you would like to read the letters referenced here in their entirety, transcriptions can be found at the links below:

• Letter from Nathaniel Seidel to Benjamin Franklin, May 1775

• Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Nathaniel Seidel, 2 June 1775

• A brief overview of the Moravian Church’s history can be found here

These articles on the Moravian Church and pacifism are in our holdings and available to study in our reading room:

• Burkette, D. Wayne, The Moravian Church and pacifism (1969), O Cn 91

• Dreydoppel, Otto, Rising patriotism and declining pacifism: the Moravian experience during the American Revolutionary War (1975), O Eaa 29