The Bloody Springs massacre was an attack by Lenape warriors on homesteads in what is now Berks County, Pennsylvania, on October 1, 1757, during the French and Indian War.

[3] Some Lenape, led by warriors such as Shingas and Captain Jacobs, sided with the French and carried out raids against Pennsylvania settlements.

[4] At the time of the Bloody Spring massacre, Tulpehocken Township had become the frontier in the French and Indian War, as the few European settlers who had established farms north of the Blue Mountain fled southward.

Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's long-time ambassador to the Six Nations of the Iroquois in today's central New York, directed the construction of forts to protect the German farm families in the northern part of Tulpehocken Township (now Upper Tulpehocken Township, established in 1820) from Native American attacks.

However, the small stockade (approximately 32 feet square) was poorly constructed, and the hastily-built house inside was ill-suited to shelter refugees in inclement weather.

[1][6] One hundred and fifty Berks County residents were killed and about 150 were kidnapped by the Lenape tribe during the French and Indian War.

There are various versions of the Spatz and Degler stories, but no contemporaneous accounts (such as military journals or reports to colonial authorities) have been found.

[14] Frederick Degler emigrated from Germany in 1738 and settled on what was then Berks County's northern frontier, near present-day Strausstown in Upper Tulpehocken Township, Pennsylvania.