Salem Attractions

20km/12.5mi south of Grahamstown on R 343 is the little town of Salem, which preserves a number of settlers' houses dating from the first half of the 19th C. Although the name Salem means "peace", the settlement was frequently besieged by the Xhosa in the Frontier Wars. During one of these sieges, in 1834, a settler named Richard Gush, who as a Quaker was opposed to any kind of violence, had taken refuge, along with his wife and children, in the Methodist church. One day he left the village, unarmed, to negotiate with the Xhosa. When he asked what they really wanted they replied that they were hungry. He went back into the village and brought them bread, tobacco, tomatoes and some pocket knives, whereupon the Xhosa called off the siege.

The former church is now a school.