Hallsville was once a thriving village on the Northeast Cape Fear River in Duplin County, North Carolina. Originally known as Limestone, the community played an important role in the region during the 18th and 19th centuries. In Hallsville: The History of a North Carolina Turpentine Town, Marc A. Bratcher offers the first comprehensive study of this area. He reconstructs the lives of the settlers, planters, merchants, and enslaved people who carved out a life for themselves along the banks of this important waterway.

The work also explores Hallsville's role in the naval stores industry, particularly turpentine, situating the community within the larger Atlantic economy and the industrial demands of a growing nation. Bratcher demonstrates how Hallsville's location at the confluence of the Northeast Cape Fear River and Limestone Creek made it a strategic riverport, drawing a sizable contingent of settlers before the rise of railroads shifted economic vitality to the western portions of the county.
With meticulous research and a deep personal connection to the land, Bratcher places Hallsville’s story within the larger arc of settlement, industry, and cultural change in the Southern United States. Both a local history and a broader reflection on community, memory, and loss, this book restores Hallsville to its rightful place in North Carolina's history. Perfect for historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in early American rural life, this book shines a light on a place that time almost erased—but not quite.