Soon after Confederate forces were defeated on Roanoke Island in 1862, hundreds of freed and runaway slave flocked to the island. It was well known that if one crossed the creek to Roanoke Island they would find “safe haven.” A “Freedmen’s Colony” was soon constructed to accommodate the African American community, which at one point was 4,000 strong. Today, their history is commemorated along the Freedom Trail at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. The 1.25-mile trail winds through the woods to a marker by the shores of the Roanoke Sound.