Sounding New Histories of the Moravian Missions

The natural and human environments of early Pennsylvania were comprised of complex biophonic, geophonic, and anthrophonic acoustic soundscapes. In the context of a time period in American history when the border between settler and Native communities and nations was a shifting spatial and cultural space, sound mattered. People listened carefully to each other and the world around them. Study of these acoustic environments is important to understanding the social, religious, and spatial relationships that characterized life in both Native and settler communities. The closer we can come to comprehending how early Americans heard their world, the closer we will be to critically understanding not only the history of the Moravian missions but also the difficult and often violent histories of the emergence of the modern American nation on Native soil during the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution.