“ ..the thought of being again made a slave and of suffering the horrible punishment of being a runaway, restrained me. I lay in the wood all that day without food. The next evening, I soon found a pile of excellent apples, from which I supplied myself. The next evening I reached Halifax Court House and then I knew I was near Virginia. On the 7th of October, I came to the Roanoke River and crossed it in the midst of a violent storm of rain and thunder, The current ran so furiously that I was carried down with it, and with great difficulty and in a complete state of exhaustion, reached the opposite shore.”
From narrative of James Williams, a slave, c. 1838.

Source: http://www.visithalifax.com/listing/3wJm/halifax-underground-railroad-trail

Halifax County in North Carolina has received three designations along the Roanoke River from the National Parks Service as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom sites. Halifax is one of them. The lower part of King Street that leads down to the Roanoke River has markers that uses newspaper ads to tell the story of the “runaways”. The other sites in Halifax County are in Weldon and in the town of Roanoke Rapids at the canal.