Abstract:
Between the founding of Salem in 1771 as a Moravian community and the outbreak of Civil War, community attitudes went through a transition. The communal sense of 'gemeinschaft' slowly changed during the 19th century to a more business-like attitude of 'gesellschaft.' Secular pressures eroded opposition to slavery on religious and moral grounds, and by the 1850s Moravians came to regard slaves not as persons but as property.