On an Eighteenth-Century Trail of Tears The Travel Diary of Johann Jacob Schmick of the Moravian Indian Congregation’s Journey to the Susquehanna, 1765

Abstract

This piece is a translation of a travel journal kept by missionary Johann Jacob Schmick as he traveled with the Moravian Indian congregation from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna in 1765. The community of mostly Delaware and Mohican Indians had been living under armed guard at the Philadelphia Barracks following the violence instigated by Pontiac’s Revolt and the Paxton Boys uprising. The community’s settlement on the Susquehanna marked a new model of Moravian mission and serves as an early example of Indian removal, particularly noteworthy in this instance because the community was composed of Christian Indians.