The history of African Americans living in Salem is particularly interesting, given how close those living in Salem were to issues like slavery and prejudice that spread across the early South.

African Americans living in or near the secular town of Salem were also slaves – though not to individual people but slaves to the Church. As such, the African Americans living in Salem apprenticed in trades beside their white brethren, lived together in town among other Salem residents, and enjoyed freedoms others African Americans in the South did not.

Though African Americans were not formally educated, they did learn and enhance their writing and reading skills through Sunday School classes at St. Philips Church – the African American church site in Salem. The Sunday School classes often exceeded capacity because they did offer a partial education for those living and working in Salem.

Much of what we know today about the African Americans in Salem was gained through oral history research and tracing family lines, or genealogy.