Salem’s (NC) Economy

The following are selected quotations are from a paper dated August 9, 2016, and was delivered to the Staff of Old Salem. The title of the presentation is: Salem - The City of Peace. Not having heard the presentation I am uninformed about the identity of the presenter.

One of the distinctions of a Congregational Town was that “…the church governed the economic life of the residents through planning boards and committees. Salem was one of the few planned towns in colonial America.”

“The Moravians engaged actively in commerce and sold things for a profit, but there was no ‘free enterprise’ or economic competition in a Congregational Town. The elders determined who could operate the specific store. For example, the church regulated who could make and sell pottery, and who could manufacture beer or guns. They did not want competition to interfere with the harmony of the community, nor did they want workers to be at the mercy of employers.”

[ed. note] There were both rich and poor living in the Moravian settlements. 

“There was not economic egalitarianism in the Moravian Church, but the church did provide a level of social service to people in Congregational Towns that was unparalleled at the time. This included medical care, education, job training, and even a place for widows to live if they did not have a home. In other words, when the Moravians were in charge of this part of North Carolina there was universal health care, free education, and full employment. They did this because they believed this was what Christ wanted Christians to do.”

Evangelism of Native Americans

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 Duchess County) to teach them. In September 1740, they led him to Shekomeko, where he established a Moravian mission. The two Indian chiefs converted to the Christian faith. 

By summer 1742, Shekomeko was established as the first native Christian congregation in the present-day United States. —Borrowed from the Moravian Church in North America website.

The Moravians in Savannah and with John Wesley

The Moravians first came to America during the colonial period. In 1735 they were part of General Oglethorpe’s philanthropic venture in Georgia. Their attempt to establish a community in Savannah did not succeed, but they did have a profound impact on the young John Wesley who had gone to Georgia during a personal spiritual crisis. Wesley was impressed that the Moravians remained calm during a storm that was panicking experienced sailors. He was amazed at people who did not fear death, and back in London he worshiped with Moravians in the Fetter Lane Chapel. There his “heart was strangely warmed.”

Millenarianism

A recent study sheet titled: Salem - The City of Peace - Controversial Moravians was prepared and distributed to the staff of Old Salem that interprets the history and buildings of this living history experience. It reminded the reader that “The name Salem points to the religious origin of this community and the utopian or millenarian hopes of the founders.” Let’s dig into that sentence - especially the word “millenarian”. 

Millenarianism is the belief in a future millennium before or after the Second Coming of Christ during which he will reign on earth in peace for one thousand years. Millenarianism is based on Revelation 20:1–5. 

More often than not there is a prefix before the word Millennium e.g., pre, post or a. Thus one might affirm Premillennialism, or PostMillennialism, or Amillennialism. 

Premillennialism holds that the Second Coming of Christ will occur before the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-5. Postmillennialism sees the Second Coming after the Millennium. Amillennialism posits that the Millennium is a symbolic concept - not literal.

18th century Moravians held to Premillennialism - that Jesus Christ would return before the Millennium.

Who else affirmed Premillennialism? 

Answer: The Church Fathers: Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Tertullian, and Cyprian. 

It was especially held by the 17th and 18th German Pietists such as the Moravians, and Mennonites. Puritan luminaries such as Jonathan Edwards as well as Increase and Cotton Mather believed this tenet. Other notables would include William Tyndale, Billy Graham, John Wesley, Albert Mohler, Chuck Swindoll and John MacArthur. 

It is to be noted that several denominations overtly oppose Premillennialism - the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, for example. 

Moravian Baptismal Sponsors

How the Moravians in the late 18th century chose sponsors for their infant baptismal candidates is interesting.

Most parents chose two to five sponsors (godparents). They typically would be a mix of relatives, neighbors and friends. 

A typical North Carolina Moravian family might select brothers and sisters from other communities such as Salem or Bethania. These selections had the positive effect of binding various Moravian congregations together. Selecting sponsors from within the family had the same effect within the family unit. 

The selection of godparents among NC Moravians rarely was made in the hope of economic gain or a rise in social status. This would be more common in Germany. 

The Moravian brethren perceived the selection of baptismal sponsors to be a high honor. Over the childbearing years the Moravian family chose and honored many people. Keep in mind that one child might have five sponsors and that the average family in this time period was seven children - some with many more. 

The motto of the Moravian Church: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love.”

Essentials:  Christ as Savior is the overarching essential.  Bible, Baptism, the Holy Communion, the Trinity are other essentials to the Moravian faith.

Non-Essentials:  Variety of worship forms, musical selections, clergy styles, the manner of baptism, are non-essentials. 

In all things Love:  Love has the power to overcome differences by refocusing concern on all that is held in common.  Love binds individuals into a community of faith.

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Former Moravian burial customs

Corpse House, ca. 1875. Moravian Archives Bethlehem, PA.

It was an Moravian custom that the trombone choir announce the death of a congregant … by playing the chorale O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. A second chorale was played that identified the choir of the deceased. The word "choir" is not a singing group but it is the term the early Moravians used to mean a group within the church based on age, sex, and marital status.

The deceased was then placed in the “Corpse House” or Leichen Kappelchenor.  A fellow congregant, sat by the body, night and day until the burial. The body was prepared by washing and wrapped in a white shroud. 

A church service preceded the burial which ends with the reading of a memoir or “Lebenslauf” of the departed. The memoir is either autobiographical or written by a loved one. The practice was instituted so that the deceased might have a voice at their own funeral. 

The congregation then sang hymns and formed a procession to the “Corpse House”. The body in a casket was carried to the graveyard - God's Acre, is it was and is called. 

Surrounding the grave the congregation’s singing and trombone choir playing intertwined in beloved Moravian chorals. A love feast was the usual conclusion to the funeral service. — Selected quotes from Lehigh Valley History

Dear Diary - The Baptism of a Negro Child

"in our Tavern Brother Kramsch baptized a Negro child whose parents live on Wachovia land (i.e. the 100,000 acres of land owned by the Brethren, in NC) and had requested it. The service was in English, and was attended by a number of Brothers and others." -- Diary entry: June 14, 1789

It is all in the Lord's time

In 1733 two Moravian missionaries were sent from Herrnhut (Saxony) to Greenland. 

Matthew Stach and Frederick Bohnisch, grave-diggers by profession, suffered from disease, the cold and starvation in Greenland. Finally after twenty-seven years they witnessed their first Inuit converts, Kajarak and his family. 

__________

How amazing. It took twenty-seven years for their suffering -  mixed with the Gospel to bring one family from darkness to light - from death to life.

This puts me in mind of Psalm 40:1 - "I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry."

Matthew Stach and Frederick Bosnisch - gravediggers and Moravian heroes are teaching us about persistence. 

The Little Red Man's Ghost

Another (halloween) … tale … is that of Andreas Kremser, aka the Little Red Man. Kremser was a man of slight stature who hadn’t been suited to a number of occupations assigned him, but, in 1786, he seemed to have found his niche as the community’s shoemaker. 

In March of that year, excavating work began inside the Single Brothers House, where Kremser lived and worked. Tragically, a cave in buried Kremser, and, though the brethren dug him out, he died of his injuries a few hours later. Since then there have been stories of the distinctive tapping of a shoemaker’s hammer on leather or of sightings of a small man wearing red. Over the years, the brothers began attributing anything odd that happened to Kremser.

Kremser has been seen by many folks since at least 1899 when such lore is first recorded. — journalnow.com