Abraham was one of six enslaved Black people recorded who were forced to help build the Moravian town of Salem. The members of the Moravian Church were steadfast to announce that they were staunch pacifists and valued peace, yet they enslaved, bought and sold Africans and African Americans. Their involvement supporting slavery and racism over the first half-century of the Wachovia-Salem community enslaving Africans and their children who were forced to lived and work in Salem between 1771 and 1865.

Enslavement was practiced widely by North Carolina Moravians, as individuals and as the church. In the early years of the community, individuals could not own slaves in Salem. Rather, enslaved people were purchased by the church (the Wachovia Administration) and were then rented out to individuals. After years of pressure, Salem leaders eventually capitulated and permitted individual ownership; the last bill of sale from the church itself was in 1832, and in 1847 Salem rescinded all restrictions regarding ownership of human beings.

Jon F. Sensbach in his book "A Separate Canaan" shows that the enslaved of Salem did not "submit patiently to the coercion of bondage." In 1774, an enslaved woman set fire to the tavernkeeper's stable, barn, and supplies. Sambo escaped multiple times, including for three weeks in July 1775. Such acts of resistance were common. So was the brutality of Moravians who sought obedience. One record shows an enslaver punished "unruliness" so frequently that he became too tired to go on dispensing beatings.

Some, including Sambo, sought to improve their station by getting baptized. Sambo was rechristened Abraham in 1780.

In 1753 the Moravians purchased approximately 100,000 acres of land in Piedmont North Carolina from the colony’s proprietor, John Carteret, the Earl of Granville. They named this tract Wachau after the location of Count Zinzendorf’s ancestral estate along the Danube River in the Wachau Valley of Austria. Later the name was Latinized to “Wachovia.” The Wachovia Tract is the site of present-day Winston-Salem and much of Forsyth County, North Carolina.
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From the recorded historical notes of the Moravian Church settlers who bought land and created the town of Salem:

Abraham (formerly Sambo)
Born: ca. 1730
Died: 7 April 1797
Worked: 1771–1797
Residences: Guinea Coast, Africa; Salem, NC

Sambo was born around 1730 in the Mandinka nation of West Africa, a location near the modern-day nations of Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Liberia. The son of the tribal elder, Sambo’s life prior to enslavement was active.[195] The Mandinka were a subsistence-farming people who relied on peanuts, rice, millet, and maize for their livelihood. Men often worked in variety of positions including woodworkers, metalworkers, and builders.

Like many of his tribesmen, Sambo participated in the frequent hostilities with the local tribes. In one of these battles he was severely wounded in the head and on his face and was taken prisoner. He was sent back to his father with mutilated ears, an insult among the Mandinka people.[196] His father immediately declared another war in an effort to avenge his son’s disfigurement.[197] Despite his condition, Sambo once again went into battle. This time he was taken prisoner and sold to European slave traders.

Brought to the West Indies, Sambo worked there for several years before being sent to Virginia.[198] He was purchased by an man named H. Lyons, who in turn sold him to Salem’s tanner Johann Heinrich Herbst in 1771. Although Herbst made the purchase, Sambo was officially owned by the Moravian Church and his labor used by Salem’s residents upon request.

Most Mandinka people were historically Muslim, or an amalgamation of Muslim and traditional African religions, but Sambo converted to Christianity and took a new name, Abraham, although his slave status in Salem remained unchanged. He most likely spent most of his days laboring for Herbst at the tannery, but he also worked with Salem’s carpenter and joiners. The records note that he aided in construction of Salem’s Single Brothers’ Workshop, as well as the Salem Community Store (Fig. 28) and Salem Tavern (Fig. 21).

On 30 July 1785, Abraham was allowed to marry a woman named Sarah, who worked in the Salem Tavern. The records do not mention much more about Abraham, but it can be surmised that he worked as a day laborer on many of the buildings in Salem that were constructed during his lifetime. He died in 1797 and was the only enslaved African to be buried in Salem’s God’s Acre.

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Image description: Top left 2 images: First Bill of Sale for enslaved Black man named Sambo, dated 1771 August 24, for $150.00 Pounds from Prior Enslaver Edmund Lyne to new enslaver Traugott Bagge (slave trader) of the town Wachovia, (Winston Salem) North Carolina. -

Bottom left 2 images: Second Bill of Sale for $64 for enslaved Black man named Sambo, dated 1776 February 2. This one also mentions an enslaved Black man named Jacob bought for $100 pounds on March 23, 1775.
Source for both Bills of Sale: Moravian Church in America Southern Province Archives / Slavery collection

Top right photograph: This photo, taken around 1870, highlights a since-destroyed building that once housed enslaved people in Salem. As part of the Hidden Town Project, researchers have determined 35 separate dwelling places for enslaved people once existed in Salem. Photograph source: of Old Salem Museums & Gardens.
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Article:
Enslaved people helped build Old Salem. For years, their stories went untold.
WUNC | By April Laissle / WFDD - Published February 17, 2022 at 1:40 PM EST

Like thousands of North Carolinians, anti-racism educator Lucretia Berry took a field trip to Old Salem Museums & Gardens as a child.

She learned about the Moravians, about how they were staunch pacifists and valued peace. But it wasn’t until well into her 30s that she learned that slavery was even a part of Old Salem’s story.

“I think it still didn't hit me that — wait a minute, the Moravians are celebrated. But they weren't supposed to enslave people," said Berry. "Like, that was a part of who they were.”

Her shock turned into amazement when she then learned that she was descended from enslaved people who lived and worked in Salem.

“I think it still didn't hit me that — wait a minute, the Moravians are celebrated. But they weren't supposed to enslave people. Like, that was a part of who they were.”
Lucretia Berry, anti-racism educator
“You know, the next time I visited Old Salem I started touching the buildings in a different way," said Berry. "It gives me chills just to tell you the story.”

She says that experience of connecting with ancestral history is one that many Black children miss out on.

“Many Americans whose ancestors were enslaved don't have a connection to their history, or to their family. And so to then have such a concrete, documented, tangible connection still feels overwhelming.

It’s one reason Old Salem has moved in recent years to incorporate the stories of enslaved people into every part of the museum.

For example, when visitors enter the pottery studio — one of many living history exhibits at the museum— an interpreter explains they’re making clay pipes in homage to Peter Oliver, an enslaved person who worked in the shop.

Jacob Chilton is an Old Salem interpreter.

“Peter Oliver stands out among a lot of the enslaved individuals who are living here in Salem," says Chilton. "In part because his is a story where he's able to purchase this freedom within his lifetime, in part through selling pipe stems.”

Peter’s story is one element of the Hidden Town Project, the museum’s effort to showcase the contributions of enslaved people and freedmen.

Frank Vagnone, CEO of Old Salem, says the goal is to make sure visitors leave knowing a truth that had been overlooked for years:

“Moravians could not have done what they did without enslaved labor.”

He says for decades that aspect of the town’s history was either siloed or entirely absent. When the museum first opened in the early 1950s, the focus was on the white male Moravians who worked as tradesmen. Gradually, stories about white women were incorporated. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that the museum publicly turned its attention to the enslaved people and freedmen that lived and worked in the town.

That began with the restoration of St. Philips Moravian Church, a brick building built in 1861 that served people of African descent. The museum focused on using that space, and a replica of the original log church to tell the stories of enslaved people in Salem

“But if you didn't go up Church Street, to the fringe of the district, you really didn't get that narrative," said Vagnone. "Because the story of the enslaved was placed in this church, which is on the fringe, it remained on the fringe.”

Vagnone says the first step in changing that was digging into new research. Eventually, archeologists and archivists discovered records confirming 35 separate dwelling places for enslaved people once existed in Salem, a kind of "hidden town" — hence the name.

Some of what they found countered a prevailing narrative that had been circulating — that the Moravians had been benevolent enslavers.

“We have writings of the Moravians that state, for instance, where a Moravian beat a runaway slave so badly that the Moravian had to go home and take a nap," said Vagnone. "I'm not making that up. It's in there.”

A centerpiece of the project was the text panels placed in each Old Salem building that explain how people of African descent were connected to it. Then, staff had to be trained to incorporate the new research into their historical interpretations for the public.

But not everyone was on board.

“There were people who didn't want to fully embed these narratives, because they felt uncomfortable talking about it, or considered it difficult history," said Vagnone. "And of course the responses, well, it's difficult for you, you know, but the Black population that's coming to visit us, they want to hear these stories.”

We have writings of the Moravians that state, for instance, where a Moravian beat a runaway slave so badly that the Moravian had to go home and take a nap.
Frank Vagnone, CEO of Old Salem
For Lucretia Berry, the long-standing omission of those stories has been frustrating. She says shortly after she learned about her connection to Old Salem, she came across an old PBS documentary about the town and started watching.

“And I kept waiting for them to talk about the free labor that they had," said Berry. "And they didn't, and I burst out crying. That was painful.”

She says the Hidden Town Project is one step in the right direction.

“I hate to say going above and beyond, because the standard is pretty low. So I will say, you know, setting a precedent, being a model, kind of leading the way for restoring stories, value, and dignity."

COVID-19 has stalled her plans to view the Hidden Town exhibitions in person; the museum closed for months and is now operating fewer buildings with a fraction of its staff.

But Berry says soon it will be her daughter’s turn to take a field trip to Old Salem, and she’s looking forward to being a chaperone.
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Sources:
https://www.mesdajournal.org/2016/the-men-who-built-salem-a-biographical-look-at-the-builders-of-the-north-carolina-moravian-town/

https://www.wunc.org/2022-02-17/enslaved-people-helped-build-old-salem-for-years-their-stories-went-untold

https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1281&context=history-500africanvoices

https://www.moravian.org/2022/12/salem-walk-opens-eyes-about-the-past/