Today we took a drive into historic Halifax in North Carolina. It seems that most places here are ‘historic’ so I wasn’t holding my breath that this place would be anything special but when we got there it was quite an interesting place. There actually is a lot of history surrounding Halifax, starting from the time that Halifax was founded in 1760 (it is right on the Roanoke River and became an important port town) through the 1830’s when the town declined due to the railroad bypassing it. Perhaps the enactment of the first legislation of North Carolina in 1776, known as the “Halifax Resolves” whereby independence from England was recommended is what Halifax is best known for.
The town itself today is quite small but contains a number of restored buildings that show how life was in the early years at Halifax; they include a Tavern, Jail, Plantation House, and the original cemetery. The whole place was quite well done, with people in period costume explaining about life in the early days of the town, as well as plenty of information in the buildings themselves explaining how they were used. There is also a really neat visitors center that has a short film and lots of artifacts about the people who lived here and the slaves they kept.
The only probably with the town was that it seems to be a place for school field trips and there were loads of kids running about the place; they were all very polite however.

Mike: Amazing, such an important place historicaly, boiled down to almost nonthing!