Chap­ter VII — Con­clu­sion brings a con­tem­pla­tive end to the Mora­vians’ jour­ney in Geor­gia, trac­ing their per­sis­tence through tur­bu­lent decades. By the time John Hagen arrived in 1740, much of the ini­tial momen­tum had dis­si­pat­ed. The Chero­kee mis­sion he intend­ed to join had already been aban­doned. Find­ing the ter­rain and polit­i­cal cli­mate inhos­pitable, Hagen opt­ed to remain in Savan­nah, where his health and the imprac­ti­cal­i­ty of reach­ing the native pop­u­la­tion influ­enced his deci­sion. Instead, he turned to gar­den­ing and pas­toral work among the local Ger­man-speak­ing res­i­dents. His efforts to fos­ter a con­gre­ga­tion were deeply affect­ed by the­o­log­i­cal dis­putes, par­tic­u­lar­ly with George White­field, whose rigid stance on pre­des­ti­na­tion clashed with Hagen’s inclu­sive faith. Ulti­mate­ly reject­ed by White­field, Hagen found sup­port among more sym­pa­thet­ic allies, notably John Brown­field and set­tlers in near­by com­mu­ni­ties, where his mes­sage found more res­o­nance.

The chap­ter then details a pro­pos­al by Gen­er­al Oglethor­pe in 1746, encour­ag­ing the Mora­vians to restart their mis­sion far­ther upriv­er. How­ev­er, the plan fal­tered before any progress could be made, sym­bol­ic of the recur­ring pat­tern of opti­mism fol­lowed by inac­tion. Near­ly three decades lat­er, in 1774, a fresh attempt to revive the mis­sion took shape with Lud­wig Mueller and John George Wag­n­er head­ing to Geor­gia to min­is­ter to enslaved indi­vid­u­als. Though well-inten­tioned, this mis­sion faced relent­less adver­si­ty. The harsh south­ern cli­mate took its toll on their health, and fever was a con­stant threat. As the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion unfold­ed, the insta­bil­i­ty of war even­tu­al­ly forced the Mora­vian mis­sion­ar­ies to retreat. Their depar­ture closed anoth­er chap­ter in an already frac­tured nar­ra­tive, one where faith and ambi­tion were repeat­ed­ly test­ed by exter­nal forces beyond their con­trol.

The nar­ra­tive then shifts to the fate of the phys­i­cal rem­nants of the Mora­vian presence—most notably their land in Savan­nah. Orig­i­nal­ly grant­ed in the 1730s to Span­gen­berg and Nitschmann, this prop­er­ty was intend­ed as both a sanc­tu­ary and base for mis­sion work. Legal dis­putes and wartime dis­rup­tions stalled these plans. For decades, the land remained a point of con­tention, bound in legal­i­ties that reflect­ed the larg­er issues faced by reli­gious minori­ties try­ing to main­tain a foothold in a colo­nial soci­ety. By the 1800s, claims to this prop­er­ty remained unre­solved, sig­nal­ing how the lega­cy of the Mora­vians was as much about what was lost or left undone as what was achieved. The depar­tures, deaths, and changes in lead­er­ship dur­ing this peri­od under­line the frag­ile nature of such an endeav­or, where the line between per­se­ver­ance and defeat often blurred.

Yet with­in these set­backs, the Mora­vians left a spir­i­tu­al imprint that out­last­ed their phys­i­cal pres­ence. The chap­ter care­ful­ly lists names, dates, and notes of those who arrived, left, or passed away, form­ing a kind of roll call of qui­et ded­i­ca­tion. These records serve as evi­dence that while per­ma­nence elud­ed them, their mis­sion was not with­out mean­ing. Many of their teach­ings and prin­ci­ples found homes else­where in the colonies, influ­enc­ing future reli­gious and edu­ca­tion­al move­ments. In a world marked by colo­nial expan­sion and reli­gious com­pe­ti­tion, the Mora­vians stood apart for their com­mu­nal val­ues, empha­sis on humil­i­ty, and desire to live in peace with those they served—even when their efforts failed to flour­ish on Geor­gian soil.

The clos­ing reflec­tions invite the read­er to view the Mora­vian sto­ry not as a tale of fail­ure, but one of sin­cere strug­gle and remark­able con­vic­tion. Their repeat­ed efforts, even in the face of polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion, dis­ease, and cul­tur­al resis­tance, reflect a unique spir­i­tu­al resilience. Unlike some colo­nial mis­sions that exploit­ed their set­tings for mate­r­i­al gain, the Mora­vians sought har­mo­ny, edu­ca­tion, and faith­ful­ness. Though the City of Savan­nah did not become the thriv­ing mis­sion cen­ter they hoped for, their exam­ple still serves as a mod­el of ser­vice moti­vat­ed not by con­quest, but com­pas­sion. Through every set­back, their sto­ry under­scores the belief that not all suc­cess is seen in num­bers, but often in integri­ty and pur­pose main­tained despite hard­ship.

In the end, the Mora­vian mis­sion in Geor­gia encap­su­lates the ten­sion between vision and real­i­ty. They arrived with high hopes of out­reach and com­mu­ni­ty but encoun­tered resis­tance both nat­ur­al and human. Their jour­ney is a reminder that ear­ly Amer­i­can his­to­ry was shaped not just by bat­tles and found­ing fathers, but by qui­et groups like the Moravians—persistent, faith­ful, and often unsung. While the land may have changed hands and their set­tle­ments fad­ed, the Mora­vians’ endur­ing spir­it shaped future gen­er­a­tions who shared in their devo­tion to peace­ful pur­pose and spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline.