Water at Salem in 18th century

Waterworks were uncommon in the U.S. in the 18th century, but in 1778, drawing from their familiarity with German waterworks systems, the 126 residents of Moravian Salem built one of the first public waterworks in this country. The pipes were cut from white oak logs. The water was gravity fed into Salem having traveled about one mile. 

This water system was not for the purpose of personal bathing or hygiene, but for several  kitchens - the Single Brothers, the Single Sisters and the Tavern.  The kitchens then as today had one simple tap for washing pots and pans. This was a huge labor saving arrangement. 

Slaves and Moravian church discipline

In the opening years of the 19th century, as in the decades preceding, slaves could become members of the Moravian Church. On the one hand this is enhanced the status of an enslaved person. On the other hand it bound them to obedience to the church. In this regard it was the same for free whites as for his slaves African-Americans.

Any Moravian Black or white could be asked to leave the community if they were not complying with the discipline of the Moravian Church. 

However, waywardness was more complicated for the Moravian slave than the Moravian free white church member. If the slave was chronically disobedient he or she could, after being sufficiently warned, be sold outside the community. Obviously this made penalty for noncompliance something more dramatic for the enslaved person than for the free white.  

Moravians do not bury in cemetaries

Cemeteries are for non-Moravians. Moravians do not use the word "cemetery" for their burial places. Moravians referred to their burial ground as Gottes Acker - a term they brought from Saxony. 

In German Acker is not a measure of land mass but describes an agricultural field - a place where one plants seeds. Moravians think of God's Acre or field as the place where the bodies of believers are sown to await the Resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Christ. 

Tavern Staff

A Moravian brother and sister catching that rare moment when one can relax at the 1784 tavern in Old Salem, NC. 

Rebekka Protten

Rebekka Protten's life is a marvelous story of a Caribbean woman that was a slave turned evangelist. She is credited with helping to inspire the rise of black Christianity in the Atlantic world. All but unknown today, Rebekka Protten left an enduring influence on African-American Christianity.

Born in 1718, Protten had a childhood conversion experience, gained her freedom from bondage, and joined a group Moravians. 

She embarked on an itinerant mission, preaching to hundreds of the enslaved Africans of St. Thomas, a Danish sugar colony in the West Indies. Laboring in obscurity and weathering persecution from hostile planters, Protten and other black preachers created the earliest African Protestant congregation in the Americas.

Rebekka is a shinning example of the missionary spirit that was evidenced by the early Moravians. They were not in a quest to be a baptized version of the Peace Corps seen so often in the 20th and 21 centuries. No, the Moravians of the 18th and early 19th century were seeking to bring the astonishing good news of Jesus Christ to the lost with an eye to the conversion of the hearer. A part of that enterprise was doing service to those to whom they preached. May their tribe increase.

The tailor's house

At the Miksch House

A Moravian sister scrubs potatoes which are richly harvested in the Miksch House garden.

The Miksch is a pre-revolutionary building originally built with logs, soon covered with clapboard. There are various simple additions up to 1786. It was the  first privately owned single family house in Salem. Earlier homes in Salem were shared.  

Rioting at the Salem tavern

On June 22, 1776 violence came to the Salem tavern. Four men, characterized as army deserters, ran wild in the tavern, breaking doors and furniture and attacking people. The rioters chased Salem citizens up the street to the home of Christian Gottlieb Reuter. His home suffered broken windows. The melee then moved to the Single Brothers House. Similar havoc was wreaked there. Seven Moravian brothers were noted as hurt by tomahawks. 

A military muster was in the area and came to take charge of the violators. As Providence would have it they were tried in the same tavern where their violence began. They were arrested by the troops and sent as prisoners to Salisbury, NC.

On the eve of the New Year

“In times past, it was a cherished tradition of the Moravian Church to read a Memorabilia of notable events at a closing service of a waning year. Not only did a Memorabilia remind a congregation of its own deeds and accomplishments during the passing year, but it also recalled the leading of the Savior as we sought to do his will.

In the Southern Province the first settlers in 1753 were prevented from holding a Memorabilia or Watchnight service, because “our cabin was very full” with visitors. Since then Bethabara and then Salem held Memorabilia services for more than two centuries until the final Salem Congregation Memorabilia was read on New Year’s Eve 1968." -- Richard W. Starbuck

The Moravian Bishop

Unlike most denominations the Moravian bishops hold no executive power by virtue of their office. Their function is primarily to ordain and to be a "pastor to the pastors." They hold the office for life and have episcopal standing throughout the world-wide Moravian church. The bishop is elected from among the presbyters of the Moravian Church. 

Christmas decorations in the Public Room of the tavern are retired

A Moravian sister collects the greens of Christmas.