We woke up this morning to an impressive downpour, which continued through the entire drive--leaving one stressed-out driver, who wasn't me. The drive from the Charlotte area to the Winston-Salem area was about three hours long, but it felt like more than that with the wipers on full-blast and still finding it challenging to see the lane markers.
Our first stop was a small park and museum at Historic Bethabara. The nice lady on duty at the visitor center asked us if we'd swum there. She was a former teacher and full of all the knowledge, which she very much enjoyed imparting. I was highly amused as she kept pointing us to her shiny new wall-boards filled with information, telling us to enjoy reading them, and then proceeding to tell us everything that was on the boards. I think she was very happy to see humans.
Bethabara was an early settlement of Moravians, a religious sect hailing from Moravia, now the Czech Republic. They believed that the Bible, not the pope, was the true word of God and endured a good deal of religious persecution before heading to the New World--originally Pennsylvania. From there, they purchased a large amount of land in the North Carolina area, which they settled in a very organized and directed way.
There was an abandoned cabin at what was to become Bethabara, where they build their first settlement, then went from there to build Salem. The two are only six miles apart, so once Salem was finally built, the church ordered them to tear down Bethabara because they didn't want the two communities to be in competition.
Bethabara was involved (though not attacked) during the French and Indian Wars, and also the Revolutionary War, which they remained neutral in, due to the Moravians being pacifists.
After visiting Bethabara, we headed down the road toward Old Salem--and encountered our first major roadblock in the form of a giant hole full of construction equipment in the place of the freeway we were supposed to cross.
After a good deal of frustration, we did finally find our way across the Construction Hole of Doom to the Old Salem visitor center.
Old Salem reminds me quite a bit of Colonial Williamsburg. It's got many open buildings filled with original and reproduction artifacts, musuem-type displays, and costumed interpreters who give you information about the assorted buildings and the people who lived there.
We enjoyed visiting the doctor's house & apothecary, the joiner, the silversmith, the bakery, and the old tavern museum, as well as buildings specific to the Moravians who built the town. The Moravians divided their society into "choirs." Young boy and girls, older boys and girls, single brothers, single sisters, and married couples. Single brothers and single sisters were men and women of marriageable age who lived, worshipped, and worked together dormitory style. They would also be apprenticed to tradesmen by the church based on their aptitudes.
The Moravians were unusual at the time in that they were highly educated--and educated their women as much as their men. If you had to be a woman in colonial times, you could certainly do worse than being Moravian.
On the other hand, the church did hold slaves. Individuals were forbidden from owning slaves, but the church could as a whole. If the slaves decided to convert to become Moravian, they joined the sisters and brethren and worshipped side by side--though they were still enslaved.
In the last twenty years or so, if memory serves, the Moravian church made an official apology to African Americans for participating in the instution of slavery.
It's interesting how very much a part of the tapestry of society slavery is here in the south. It's something we're aware of in an academic way in the north, but it just doesn't pulse through every aspect of life.
Tomorrow we will be up at the crack of the start of free-continental-breakfast-time, then off for our longest drive of the trip, all the way to the Outer Banks.
Phew!
Our first stop was a small park and museum at Historic Bethabara. The nice lady on duty at the visitor center asked us if we'd swum there. She was a former teacher and full of all the knowledge, which she very much enjoyed imparting. I was highly amused as she kept pointing us to her shiny new wall-boards filled with information, telling us to enjoy reading them, and then proceeding to tell us everything that was on the boards. I think she was very happy to see humans.
Bethabara was an early settlement of Moravians, a religious sect hailing from Moravia, now the Czech Republic. They believed that the Bible, not the pope, was the true word of God and endured a good deal of religious persecution before heading to the New World--originally Pennsylvania. From there, they purchased a large amount of land in the North Carolina area, which they settled in a very organized and directed way.
There was an abandoned cabin at what was to become Bethabara, where they build their first settlement, then went from there to build Salem. The two are only six miles apart, so once Salem was finally built, the church ordered them to tear down Bethabara because they didn't want the two communities to be in competition.
Bethabara was involved (though not attacked) during the French and Indian Wars, and also the Revolutionary War, which they remained neutral in, due to the Moravians being pacifists.
After visiting Bethabara, we headed down the road toward Old Salem--and encountered our first major roadblock in the form of a giant hole full of construction equipment in the place of the freeway we were supposed to cross.
After a good deal of frustration, we did finally find our way across the Construction Hole of Doom to the Old Salem visitor center.
Old Salem reminds me quite a bit of Colonial Williamsburg. It's got many open buildings filled with original and reproduction artifacts, musuem-type displays, and costumed interpreters who give you information about the assorted buildings and the people who lived there.
We enjoyed visiting the doctor's house & apothecary, the joiner, the silversmith, the bakery, and the old tavern museum, as well as buildings specific to the Moravians who built the town. The Moravians divided their society into "choirs." Young boy and girls, older boys and girls, single brothers, single sisters, and married couples. Single brothers and single sisters were men and women of marriageable age who lived, worshipped, and worked together dormitory style. They would also be apprenticed to tradesmen by the church based on their aptitudes.
The Moravians were unusual at the time in that they were highly educated--and educated their women as much as their men. If you had to be a woman in colonial times, you could certainly do worse than being Moravian.
On the other hand, the church did hold slaves. Individuals were forbidden from owning slaves, but the church could as a whole. If the slaves decided to convert to become Moravian, they joined the sisters and brethren and worshipped side by side--though they were still enslaved.
In the last twenty years or so, if memory serves, the Moravian church made an official apology to African Americans for participating in the instution of slavery.
It's interesting how very much a part of the tapestry of society slavery is here in the south. It's something we're aware of in an academic way in the north, but it just doesn't pulse through every aspect of life.
Tomorrow we will be up at the crack of the start of free-continental-breakfast-time, then off for our longest drive of the trip, all the way to the Outer Banks.
Phew!
