Question: Where doNorth Carolina’s Moravians trace their roots to?
Answer: In 1722, Count Nicholas Louis von Zinzendorf offered refuge on his Saxony estate to Moravian religious dissidents, who settled in Herrnhut, Germany, and became known as Moravians. Tracing their roots to Jan Hus, martyred in 1415—100 years before Luther’s Reformation—they formed the Unity of the Brethren, one of the earliest Protestant groups.
The Moravians became pioneering missionaries, establishing colonies in Pennsylvania by 1740 before purchasing 100,000 acres in North Carolina’s Piedmont in 1753 to found Wachovia and Bethabara.
