Seaside Spectres

North Carolina's Haunted Hundred Coastal

Daniel W. Barefoot’s colleagues in the North Carolina General Assembly call him their “resident historian.” Now, he’s their resident folklorist, too. North Carolina’s Haunted Hundred, Barefoot’s three-volume series, is a sampler of the diverse supernatural history of the Tar Heel State. One story is drawn from each of the state’s hundred counties. You’ll find tales of ghosts, witches, demons, spook lights, unidentified flying objects, unexplained phenomena, and more. Many of the stories have never before been widely circulated in print. Seaside Spectres contains 33 tales from the state’s coastal region. In “The Cursed Town,” the Beaufort County story, you’ll read about the curse laid on Bath by an eighteenth-century preacher—a curse from which the town has never recovered. In “Terrors of the Swamp,” the Camden County story, you’ll learn of unexplained happenings in the Great Dismal Swamp—mysterious lights, a ghostly haunting from the American Revolution, and an awful creature called the Dismal Swamp Freak. In “The Fraternity of Death,” the New Hanover County tale, you’ll meet the nineteenth-century cult whose members mocked the Last Supper and died under mysterious circumstances soon afterward, inspiring a story by Robert Louis Stephenson.

Dan Barefoot was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 18, 1951. He is a 1973 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law. Barefoot is the author of four travel guides—Touring the Backroads of North Carolina’s Upper Coast, Touring the Backroads of North Carolina’s Lower Coast, Touring South Carolina’s Revolutionary War Sites, and Touring North Carolina’s Revolutionary War Sites—as well as a biography of esteemed confederate general Robert Hoke and a trilogy of ghost stories representing all of North Carolina’s one hundred counties. Barefoot’s most recent books are Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities, Let Us Die Like Brave Men, Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices, and Spirits of ’76. From 1998 until 2002, Barefoot served three terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives, representing the 44th district. He has also served on numerous boards and is active in his church and community. Barefoot currently serves as the city attorney for Lincolnton, North Carolina. He is a frequent speaker to cultural, civic, and church groups throughout the Southeast.