Massacre At Gnadenhutten

The American Revolutionary War's Gnadenhutten Massacre, also known as the Moravian Massacre, took place on March 8, 1782, in the Moravian missionary settlement of Gnadenhutten, Ohio Country. It resulted in the deaths of 96 pacifist Moravian Christian Indians (mainly Lenape and Mohican). The Moravians were looked down upon by both the British and the Americans due to their adherence to Christian pacifism, which prevented them from taking sides during the American Revolution. The Pennsylvania militia came upon the Moravians as they were gathering crops and made false promises to the Moravians that they would be "relocated away from the fighting parties." However, after they had gathered, the American militia rounded up the unarmed Moravians and claimed they intended to put them to death for being spies, accusations the Moravians refuted.

The Moravians spent the night before their execution praying and reciting Christian songs and psalms after requesting permission to pray and worship from their captors. Despite being outnumbered by those who wished to murder the pacifist Moravians, 18 U.S. militiamen resisted the killings; those who opposed the killings abstained from the massacre and kept their distance from the murderers. The American soldiers "dragged the women and girls out into the snow and systematically raped them" before killing them. The Moravians sang hymns and spoke words of encouragement and consolation one to another until they were all slain" as they were being executed.