Moravian Church Settlement In Early America Summary

A crucial part of American history is the values brought with immigrants hoping to settle in the country. Several historians examine the hopes and realities of early southern settlers in America contrastingly. Daniel B. Thorp considers Moravian Church settlement in North Carolina and argues that Moravians came to the south with a plan that was ultimately modified without losing its focus or origin; contrarily, Alan Gallay, focusing on the founding of Georgia, suggests that immigrants brought a plan to Georgia that was completely changed in order to allow for establishment in the area. Colin Woodard, in looking at the beginning of the southern nations, finds that their expectations for their new settlement fully became realities. In actuality,

As a strategy for success, they intended to create German-like agricultural villages. Upon arrival, however, the immigrants began to assimilate to the foreign land, developing villages and agricultural techniques more like their new neighbors, who seemed to know the land better. Other reasons Germans immigrated were for religious benefits. As they settled, they established villages to allow for tight communities so as to preserve their ideals. While these hopes and plans are obvious, Thorp also reasons that Moravians came with an underlying plan: to recreate their societies in Germany. They had a xenophobic idea, he argues, that if they couldn’t keep their original societies, they would become uncivilized. As they settled in North Carolina, they kept a system similar to their societies at home, with church leadership and organization. According to Thorp, even a settlement that was an aberration from their other planned settlements only showed ‘the church’s willingness to adopt new methods in order to accomplish [their] goals’. (273) In fact, the Moravians improved upon their original agricultural plans by adapting to the unfamiliar land. Overall, the Moravians were careful to sustain their principles and practices while maintaining an openness to acclimate to the foreign land for their own benefit.

According to the plan, the land was intended as an area for poor immigrants who were promised fifty-acres of land upon migration. Along with other guidelines, planters in Georgia were not allowed to sell land without permission. Colonists would also act as citizen soldiers, constantly prepared to defend their colony. Despite these thoughtful plans, which were egalitarian in an economic sense, Georgia quickly took on an opposite purpose. Soon, huge plantations were attained there, bringing political power with them. Gallay, in exploring plantation owner Jonathan Bryan, discusses the use of slave labor to transform the region to a commercial economy and contribute to the political hierarchy. Soon, the ability to control others came to define position in society, completely flipping the initial purpose of the land. Specifically, Gallay points out that Bryan was mostly able to build his empire because of his political position. Ultimately, in Georgia, the original plan to give each person equal amounts of land proved unsturdy, and instead, the land became home to some of the largest plantation empires, whose owners used slavery and political power to acquire