In recent years, as limited records in and outside the Salem community make possible, African American genealogy related to the Wachovia communities has been conducted in depth.

The database now contains nearly 7,000 names of those enslaved in this area in the 1700 and 1800s and their descendants. This information is a part of Old Salem's research files. An example of the stories found through this research is included below.

Washington Fries (1836-1920)
Washington "Wash" Fries was born in Virginia in November, 1836 and at some point was purchased by Wilhelm Fries of Salem, and later his sons, and worked at the Fries wool mill. He was married to Harriet Sophia in 1859. Harriet is believed to have belonged to James Waugh for whom Waughtown was named, and where they ultimately lived.

Several of Washington and Harriet's children were baptized at the African Moravian Church. Harriet was one of the first followers of Baptist minister Rev. George Holland, also from Virginia, who started the African American First Baptist Church in Winston, along with several others, in the late 1800s. For this reason, we suspect, Harriet and Wash's younger children were not baptized at the African Moravian Church.

Harriet and Wash had several children, one of whom -- Thomas -- fought with Francisco Madero in the Mexican Civil War in 1910. Madero later became president of Mexico for a brief period. Tom wrote his sister Clara from Los Angeles in 1915, on a postcard the family still has.

Clara was born in 1875 and is believed to have been named for Clara Barton, the "Angel of the Battlefield" in the Civil War and later director of missing soldiers. There is no evidence at this time that Wash had an active role in the Civil War.

From "Reminiscences of John W. Fries" (from the estate of Margaret McCuiston): "Wash, also a Mulatto, was also a wool mill spinner. A good man always, slave and free. He married a good woman, a slave, and they established a modest home for themselves after they were free, and rasied a large family of children. Quite a number of these children and grandchildren drifted North into domestic service, but the mother, children and grandchildrn have been dying off with the fatal scourge consumption until Wash is left almost alone. As a slave he had been a barber in his spare time and at one time after freedom he undertook to run a barber shop of his own, but he soon came back and is with me still as a gardener, etc."

Washington died on August 20, 1920, and was buried in the Belview cemetery in Waughtown.