[2] The first Moravians to come to North America were August Gottlieb Spangenberg and Wenzel Neisser, who accompanied a group of persecuted Schwenkfelders to Pennsylvania in 1735 at Zinzendorf's direction.

The beginning of the church's work in North America is usually given as 1740, when Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg sent Christian Henry Rauch to New York City on a mission to preach and convert native peoples.

Eager to learn more, the Mahican chiefs Tschoop and Shabash invited Rauch to visit their village (in present-day Dutchess County) to teach them.

Meanwhile, European settlers who opposed the Moravians' defense of Native Americans spread rumors that they were secret Catholic Jesuits allied with the French, British enemies.

[3] Later, colonies were also founded in North Carolina, where Moravians led by Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg purchased 98,985 acres (400.58 km2) from John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville.

Rohrer (2001) demonstrates the social history of the community of Wachovia, founded in the North Carolina Piedmont in 1753, illustrates the importance of the beliefs and practices of the Moravians in achieving the integration and acculturation of settlers of different ethnic backgrounds.

The Moravian emphasis on openness and tolerance, combined with the conversion experience of new birth, undermined ethnic homogeneity and provided a source of communal cohesion.

Fogleman (2003) examines the theological, demographic, and sociological roots of factional clashes between Moravians and their more traditional German Lutheran and Reformed coreligionists, focusing on mid-18th-century communities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where these confrontations were frequent and sometimes violent.

Moravians' beliefs centered on a feminized Holy Spirit, the right of women to preach, sacralizing the sex act, and metaphorically re-gendering Jesus Christ.

These teachings were perceived as threats to more mainstream Christian articles of faith, which stressed the masculinity of the Trinity as the theological cornerstone of the nuclear patriarchal family, the core structure in upholding moral and social order.

Wise management meant the Strangers' Store remained profitable for the rest of the colonial period, funding the growth of Moravian enterprises both in Pennsylvania and back in Germany.

[10] On reproductive issues, the Northern Province has encouraged conversation, and the Moravian Church in America supports the right to abortion for certain situations.