Monuments at Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum

A monument at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras honors Hotel De Afrique, the first safe haven for African Americans during the Civil War. The wooden house was approximately 1.5 miles west of where the museum now stands. A predecessor to the Freedmen's Colony on Roanoke Island and part of the National Underground Railroad, the building and surrounding barracks housed former slaves on their way to freedom. Other monuments in the parking lot at the museum include information about the Civil War forts of Hatteras and Clark and about General Burnside's expedition at Hatteras Inlet on February 8, 1862. The museum is beside the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry boarding site in Hatteras village, so you can run over and have a look at the monuments while you wait in line for the ferry.