Old Salem

Recent Field Work

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF AN

AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

In the late 18 century, German Moravians settlers reluctantly bought slaves to assist in pioneering their congregational town. To these African Americans they offered Christianity, "brotherhood and sisterhood," but not freedom. Contradictions continued as racism spread and Salem became industrialized.

This fall seven graduate students are helping explore this complicated world through excavation in the Moravian Stranger's graveyard and the Moravian African -American church and cemetery (Skeletal remains will not be excavated or exposed.) The students have the opportunity to hone excavation and leadership skills while participating in archaeological decision making. Participants are also exploring archaeological and archival resources in Salem for honors and masters theses, dissertations, etc. The project offers excellent opportunities for studying a variety of topics including African-American community development and folk life, issues of gender, race and class, and the rise of capitalism and industrialization in a religious community. Visiting lecturers will place the African American Community of Salem in historical and archaeological context.

African-American Moravian churches in Salem

1) 1861 brick church with stranger's African- American cemetery in front,

2) 1823 log church (sheathed with clapboards.)

Visiting Lecturers:

Dr. Jon Sensbach (University of Florida)

Dr. Michael Shirley (National Endowment for the Humanities)

Dr. Marilyn Thomas Houston ( University of South Carolina)

Dr. Stanley South (University of south Carolina)

The Strangers’ Graveyard

&

St. Philips African American Church and Cemetery

In 1769 Moravians set aside a "Strangers’ Graveyard" for non-Moravians who died in and around Salem. Black Moravians were buried in the Moravian cemetery beside their white brothers and sisters. Then, coincident with general fears of insurrection in the early 19^th century, white Moravians established a separate Sunday school for blacks. In 1816 they declared that all blacks, Moravian or not, should be buried in the "Strangers’ Graveyard," and that white non-Moravian Christians could be buried in the Moravian cemetery. Seven years later, church leaders directed that black Moravians should build a separate church, made of logs, adjacent to the "Strangers’ Graveyard," now called the "Negro God’s Acre." From this point until the Civil Rights Movement, racist segregation prevailed in Salem.

Since 1991 archaeologists have been exploring the "Negro God’s Acre," the 1823 log church, and a brick church built in 1861 adjacent to the "Graveyard." In previous projects, student excavators have mapped the layout of graves, searched for the 1823 church, and helped recover hidden gravestones. The research has been the topic of several project reports and theses. Participants in fall 2000 excavations will excavate within the churchyard and cemetery, identifying activity areas and exposing grave outlines.

Displaced gravestones hidden beneath the church floor. The stone in the upper left reads

"Timothy, a native of Africa"

Dr. Ferguson's Home page USC Graduate Admission USC Undergraduate Admission

Faculty: Dr. Leland Ferguson, Professor, University of South Carolina; Mr. Michael O. Hartley, M.A., Old Salem Archaeologist; Mr. Geoffrey Hughes, University of South Carolina.