Blackcoats Among the Delaware

Book excerpt: Thousands of pages of diaries and hundreds of letters serve as David Zeisberger's testament to 63 years as a Moravian missionary among North American Indians. This unrivaled record of Indian culture and colonial life provides firsthand evidence of the 18th-century struggle between the American Indians and their British and American adversaries. Readers of Blackcoats among the Delaware will find new and interesting historical data taken from recently discovered correspondence and previously untranslated diaries. Olmstead also presents a fascinating analysis of Zeisberger's unique approach to Christian philosophy vis-à-vis native Indian religion and culture.