Toward a New Understanding of the French & Indian War: Implications of the Fort Hyndshaw Massacre

Summary

The discovery of a hitherto undocumented massacre site has prompted a radical reinterpretation of the French & Indian War in northeastern Pennsylvania.  Following the extermination of the missionary populations at Gnadenhutten and Dansbury, this third massacre of Moravian women and children has established a pattern best explained in the context of a Delaware Indian/Moravian "religious war" whose proximate cause can be traced to the earthquake of 18 November 1755 – the single largest earthquake ever to hit the northeastern American coast.  With ethnographic materials serving to posit direct linkage between earthquakes and the need to revitalize Delaware Indian spirituality, the Christianizing activities of the Moravian brethren must now be framed in a new light, as the sole and unequivocal threat to Delaware Indian religiosity in 1755 – a threat that required the expiation that only massacres could offer. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "Spirits of the Dead": The Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries and Commemoration   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 689