ADULT FORUM

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In 1763, a frontier militia from what is today the Harrisburg area slaughtered 20 peaceful Conestoga Indians—women, children and old men—who were living under the protection of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the County of Lancaster. The Conestoga were the last-known members of the once-mighty Susquehannock, whom Captain John Smith, upon meeting in 1608, had described as “giants.” The 1763 massacre wiped out an entire people.

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On October 10, the Adult Forum featured Jack Brubaker, author of Massacre of the Conestoga: On the Trail of the Paxton Boys in Lancaster County, who discussed and reflected on how a group of Presbyterian colonists led by a slaveholding pastor committed an atrocity that continues to reverberate centuries later.

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Listen to the presentation below: