The Journals of the Moravian Mission to Georgia, 1734–1737

Book excerpt: This book offers the first English translation of journals written by four leading figures in the Moravian Church who spent time in the British colony of Georgia between 1735 and 1737. Authored by August Gottlieb Spangenberg, David Nitschmann, Johann Töltschig, and Johann Andreas Dober, these documents are a vital source of historical and cultural information. Offering new insights into the eighteenth-century Atlantic world, the journals address a range of fascinating topics, including missionary travel to the Americas, life in colonial Georgia, and Moravian theology and practices. Originally written in an archaic script and housed in a remote German archive, the journals have not been widely available to readers until the publication of this book. Presenting a valuable resource for scholars and general audiences alike, John Thomas Scott and Achim Kopp have translated the diaries into a readable version of English that also remains faithful to the original German. In addition to featuring explanatory annotations of the journal entries, the book also includes a list of the Moravians who travelled to the Georgia colony, profiles of the settlers and of each of the journal authors, and a timeline of the Georgia Moravian settlement. Supported by this contextual apparatus, The Journals of the Moravian Mission to Georgia offers an important new perspective on a key historical moment in the founding of the modern West.