Salem has an early history of accepting students from diverse backgrounds. Moravian records show that two enslaved African-American girls were accepted at Salem; Hanna a ten-year-old entered the school in 1785 and Anna Maria Samuel attended the school and lived in the Single Sisters’ House from 1793 until 1795. In 1826, Sally Ridge, the daughter of Cherokee leader Major Ridge, became the first American Indian student at Salem. Jane Ross, the daughter of another Cherokee chief, was also a student, but she left Salem to join her family on the Trail of Tears in 1838.