Gnadenhutten Massacre: 96 Christian Natives Murdered by American Militia

They prayed and sang hymns while the militiamen sharpened their weapons. Ninety-six Christian Delawares in Gnadenhutten, Ohio—mostly women and children—spent their final night preparing for death, knowing they'd done nothing wrong. The Pennsylvania volunteers, led by David Williamson, had promised safe passage, then voted 18-to-2 to execute them anyway. The Delawares were tied up, taken to two buildings, and killed methodically with mallets. Two boys escaped through the chaos to tell what happened. The massacre didn't stop frontier raids—it made them worse. Furious Delawares and Shawnees intensified attacks across Pennsylvania and Ohio, and months later, they captured Williamson's superior officer, Colonel William Crawford, torturing him to death in revenge. The militiamen had murdered the only Native Americans in the region who'd refused to fight.