Customer Reviews

David Zeisberger: A Life Among the Indians

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3 star:		(1)
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This is a extremely well researched book. While not a "can't-put-it-down" book, it is written in a style that keeps one interested. It doesn't have the more exciting style of, say, The Frontiersman by Allan Eckert, but it is a good read non-the-less. There is plenty of history here, plenty of information about the Indians of the time, politics, characters, etc. However, so much history is covered that it is impossible to cover any part in great depth which makes it difficult to feel that one is part of the action. Instead, the book is more of the typical history book where one feels to be on the outside looking in.
I live near where much of this history takes place in Ohio, so I find the history of this area more interesting than some, and I don't understand why David Zeisberger doesn't get more mention in history. This is a fascinating person. Fascincating enough that his history could be written in a more exciting style by the right author. However, this isn't a put down, as this is the best book on the subject I have read.
The book starts out with the childhood of Zeisberger, which is a little slow reading. This information is important, though, as it shows what environment Zeisberger grew up in and how it affected his life later.
However, I was more interested in the years between 1740-1782. This is a wonderfully exciting time in Ohio history, and Olmstead covers it well. Because of the focus of the book, Olmstead covers events such as Braddock's Massacre in only a page or so, whereas there are entire books written on just this one battle. However, the book is about Zeisberger, and Olmstead relates how events such as these affected the lives of those around Zeisberger and the Moravian missions. The book takes us through the French and Indian War, into the Revolutionary War, and ends with the massacre of Christian Indians at Gnadenhutten, Ohio in 1782. Olmstead's history shows us how these peaceful (and not so peaceful) Indians' lives were affected by the events happening around them and to them.
This is a very "neutral" book. By that I mean, the book doesn't offer a slanted judgement of one side against the other; it simply tells what happens. For example, both the good and the bad of the Indians are pointed out, giving us a true view of the Eastern Woodland Indians as real people, not just some distorted image of the "noble savage" fighting against the evil white men trying to steal his land.
Another book by Olmstead, "Blackcoats among the Delaware" covers Zeisberger's life after the period of this book, but I really think this is the better written book (of course, since I am more interested in the 1750-1780 time period, this may just be prejudice on my part).
Even forgetting David Zeisberger, this is a decent book on "Indian-Colonist relations," and how one event could influence another event many miles away. I don't think anyone could be disappointed in this book if they are interested in either the time period or David Zeisberger. As a book on Zeisberger, this should be a 5 star, but as a book in general, a 3 is about it.

Note: Some immature Mormon is angry over my negative reviews of books written to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews.

Your comments or "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks

I was disappointed that one reviewer only gave this wonderful biography three stars. It deserves five. I thought he gave a good review, but he ended on a negative and illogical note. He said, "I don't think anyone could be disappointed in this book if they are interested in either the time period or David Zeisberger. As a book on Zeisberger, this should be a 5 star, but as a book in general, a 3 is about it." ???

Olmstead's biography of David Zeisberger, the compassionate missionary to the Indians in the 1700s, is well written and fascinating. The book is not about the origins of Mormonism, but Olmstead's portrait of Zeisberger's world provides many insights into the origins of Mormonism.

In describing the religious and culturally diverse melting pot that was the early United States, Olmstead prepares the reader for the study of the origins of Mormonism. Colonial diversity was striking. As early as 1646, there were more than eighteen European languages spoken in the Hudson River Valley and with them, of course, sprang fountains of cultural and religious folklore.

It is now possible to see how, almost of necessity, that the religious stew that had been brewing in the 1700s would boil over into something new in the early 1800s. Consider the population of Pennsylvania about the time of the American Revolution.

There were a myriad of Indian groups, and the settlers consisted of German, English, Scotch-Irish, Scots, Swedes, Finns, Dutch, French, Welsh, Swiss, and black Africans. There were more religious denominations than European groups, among them English Quakers, German Quakers, Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, German Pietists, Mennonites, German Baptist Brethren, Schwenkfelders, Moravians, Lutherans, Reformed Germans, Anglicans, Dutch Reformed, Jews, Roman Catholics, Huguenots, and smaller sects such as Conrad Beisel's Seventh-Day Baptist Monks and Nuns at Ephrata (p. 113).

Had Earl P. Olmsted in his life of David Zeisberger been concerned with the origins of Mormonism, he might also have mentioned that Conrad Beisel practiced baptism for the dead and was invested with the Melchisedek priesthood. Conrad Weiser, another Ephrata monk, took the name of "Enoch," the same name later used by Joseph Smith. The monks at Ephrata also strongly opposed infant baptism and the use of alcohol and tobacco.

Thus, as always in the world, the young stand on the unique foundation of the previous generation. Zeisberger, the great Moravian missionary among the Indians, and translator of the Bible into Indian languages, died in 1808 when Joseph Smith was just three years old. The Indians and Indian Wars of the Northeast had already passed into stories told by men sitting around the general store.

The rough percentages of different Ethnic groups in Pennsylvania by 1760 were: English (40%), German (30%), Scotch-Irish (20%), and 10% for other groups. So there were a lot of German immigrants in America. (p. 136).

Significantly, there was some talk after the American Revolution about whether English or German should be the national language!