HATTERAS, N.C. — A site on the Outer Banks is being added to the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
A monument is scheduled for dedication Wednesday at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras to the Hotel De Afrique. The site is considered the first safe haven for runaway slaves in North Carolina.
After Union troops captured the area early in the Civil War, dozens of slaves fled there. In return for food and shelter, they helped federal forces load ships and build fortifications.
The freed slaves stayed in as many as 12 wooden buildings, one of them called the Hotel De Afrique.
The network includes sites important to the underground railway which was the system of safe houses used by slaves escaping north.
