During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 210, a greatly expanded sedimentary sequence of continuous Cretaceous black shales was recovered at Site 1276. This section corresponds to the Hatteras Formation, which has been documented widely in the North Atlantic Ocean. The cored sequence extends from the lowermost Albian, or possibly uppermost Aptian, to the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary and is characterized by numerous gravity-flow deposits and sporadic, finely laminated black shales. The sequence also includes several sedimentary intervals with high total organic carbon (TOC) contents, in several instances of probable marine origin that may record oceanic anoxic events (OAE). These layers might correspond to the Cenomanian-Turonian OAE 2; the mid- Cenomanian event; and OAE 1b, 1c, and 1d in the Albian. In addition, another interval with geochemical characteristics similar to OAE-type layers was recognized in the Albian, although it does not correspond to any of the known OAEs. This study investigates the origin of the organic matter contained within these black shale intervals using TOC and CaCO (sub 3) contents, C (sub org) /N (sub tot) ratios, organic carbon and nitrogen isotopes, trace metal composition, and rock-eval analyses. Most of these black shale intervals, especially OAE 2 and 1b, are characterized by low delta (super 15) N values (<0 per mil) commonly observed in mid-Cretaceous black shales, which seem to reflect the presence of an altered nitrogen cycle with rates of nitrogen fixation significantly higher than in the modern ocean.