Moravian Cemetery
St. Philips Moravian Church is the oldest African American church building in North Carolina. The Moravians of Old Salem began segregating their burials after 1816 out of fear of a revolt by enslaved persons and adoption of mainstream southern social customs. The St. Phillips cemetery was used to bury their enslaved persons.
A total of 331 unmarked graves were located in the cemetery. The depth of soil disturbance recorded by the GPR varied between four and six feet. Magnetic nails, which can be relocated using a metal detector, were placed at the head of each GPR anomaly interpreted as a potential unmarked grave.
A Nikon Total Station was used to survey the location the marked and unmarked graves. This survey data was drafted and is shown on the attached map. The names on the headstones were recorded where possible. The numbers on the cemetery map correspond with the names and descriptions listed in Table 1.
The marked graves and cemetery boundaries can be used as reference points to orient the map and locate the unmarked graves in the future. Two survey points were marked in the field.
