14-02-2025
Enslaved people took refuge at pioneering hotel on NC Outer Banks. But perils awaited
A hotel was North Carolina's first 'safe haven' for enslaved people during the Civil War.
But perils still awaited those who arrived.
In the 1860s, African Americans escaped to one of the state's Outer Banks barrier islands. Hotel De Afrique opened as a place for people to stay, but the site was marred with flooding, violence and other problems, according to historians.
Hotel De Afrique, featured in Harper's Weekly on Feb. 15, 1862, leaves behind a complicated legacy. Here's what we know 163 years after the magazine was published.
How did the Hotel De Afrique start?
In the magazine, Hotel De Afrique was depicted with a wooden facade. A flag can be seen flying from the top of the building, which is surrounded by people and boats, according to copies published online.
The building on Hatteras Island is considered the 'first safe haven for African Americans' escaping slavery in North Carolina during the Civil War, the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum wrote on its website.
'After the Union won the Battle of Hatteras Inlet in 1861, federal forces took control of the island,' the Outer Banks History Center wrote Feb. 3 in a Facebook post. 'News quickly spread to the mainland, and enslaved people began traveling to Hatteras seeking refuge. Due to this increase of new families on the island, a wooden structure was designated as lodging.'
What was life like on the island?
Hundreds of people reached the original Hotel De Afrique, also referred to as Hotel D'Afrique or Hotel De' Afrique, by boat. It was located near Hatteras Inlet, a waterway that separates two Outer Banks islands.
'The now freedmen received housing and food. In return, African Americans provided intelligence for Union forces, leading to more Union victories along the coast,' the National Park Service wrote online, adding that newcomers were among the first Black people to fire at the Confederate military.
Though the Hotel De Afrique has been called a 'safe haven' for people who escaped slavery, trouble persisted for those who arrived.
'Some historians say it should be considered as more of a labor camp rather than a comfortable place of living,' UNC-Chapel Hill's Carolina K-12 program wrote on its website. 'The original shelter was next to the inlet and flooded frequently.'
In 1862, Hotel De Afrique was destroyed in a storm and rebuilt on higher ground 'with 10 to 12 barracks,' experts said.
A major flash point came when Union soldiers entered Hotel De Afrique and 'attacked the defenseless occupants with knives and bayonets,' killing a man known as Galloway or Gallaway, according to historians and the Museum of the Albemarle.
'Not all the white people at the site embraced the idea of equality of the races,' the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum wrote on its website. 'Drunken soldiers caused unrest, which resulted in violence and the murder of a Black man. The soldiers only received a reprimand.'
The site that once housed the Hotel De Afrique is near the present-day Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. It's 'part of the Underground Railroad which commemorates the resistance to and the flight from enslavement,' according to the National Park Service..
