God's Acre Cemetery, also called Salem Moravian God's Acre and Salem Moravian Graveyard, is the Moravian burial ground in Old Salem, North Carolina. It sits roughly 100 yards north of the town's Home Moravian Church and serves the thirteen member churches of Salem's congregation: Ardmore, Bethesda, Calvary, Christ, Fairview, Fries, Home, Immanuel New Eden, Konnoak Hills, Messiah, Pine Chapel, St Philips and Trinity. St Philips maintains a second cemetery in the northeastern corner of the adjacent Salem Cemetery.
Burials here are arranged chronologically, beginning with the first burial, John Birkhead, in 1771, and the first female burial, Eva Anna Beroth, two years later. You will notice there are no statues — only uniform square white headstones, 20" x 24" x 4" for adults, laid into the ground because Moravians believe everyone is equal in death. The graves follow the 18th-century choir format: men and boys separated from women and girls, and family ties are not considered, for the cemetery itself is treated as a family plot.
As of 2023, the yard contains over 6,000 burials. Picture the neat rows of uniform white headstones, and follow the yard north to Cemetery Street, the older entrance.