Gottlieb Priber

Christian Gottlieb Priber (March 21, 1697 - 1744) was a German mystic thinker who immigrated to North America to preach a vision of a new society. His activity was centered among the Cherokee people who accepted him as a "beloved man" because of his affection for Native American culture and his opposition to as he viewed it a thoroughly corrupt European culture. At the time, the Cherokee people occupied a powerful position in southeastern colonial America. Priber sought them out particularly because they were an ideal people to actualize his visions. He advocated a communal society based on Plato's Republic united into a confederation made up of all the native tribes in the region, one that would play off the different colonizers, Spain, France, and England, in order to strengthen their hold on tribal land. Because of his position against private property and his policy to provide refuge for runaway slaves and debtors in Cherokee territory, his surrender was demanded by the British authorities in 1739 and when on his way to New Orleans in 1743, he was caught by British-allied Creeks and handed over to the British colonial authorities, eventually dying under imprisonment in Frederica, Georgia.