Zeisberger, David definition of Zeisberger, David in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Zeisberger, David (zīs`bərgər), 1721–1808, American Moravian missionary, b. Moravia. While a youth, he lived in Holland and later in London, where he met Graf von Zinzendorf Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von (nē`kōlous l
..... Click the link for more information. , who enabled him to join (1739) a Moravian colony in Georgia. Zeisberger moved (c.1740) to Pennsylvania with the colony and entered on missionary service. His assistant was J. G. E. Heckewelder Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus (hĕk`əvĕldər), 1743–1823, Moravian missionary in the United States, b.
..... Click the link for more information. . Zeisberger helped ally the Iroquois with the English against French aggressions on the continent. He worked effectively among the Native Americans in the Pennsylvania area. His mission (est. 1772) at Schoenbrunn, Ohio (see Schoenbrunn Village State Memorial Schoenbrunn Village State Memorial (shān`brən, –br
..... Click the link for more information. ) was destroyed (1777) during the American Revolution American Revolution, 1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called the American War of Independence.
..... Click the link for more information. , and in 1781 the British temporarily imprisoned him. Zeisberger later set up other missions in Ohio and one in Canada. His numerous writings include a spelling book, a Native American grammar and dictionary, and a history of the Native Americans.

Bibliography

See E. A. De Schweinitz, The Life and Times of David Zeisberger (1870, repr. 1971).