Mary Smith Peake, Educator and the Founding of Hampton University

Sept 17, 1861: Mary Smith Peake gathered approximately 20 enslaved children under the branches of what is now known as the ‘Emancipation Oak’ in Hampton, VA, to hold their very 1st outdoor class. These were children whose enslaved families had escaped to freedom at Fort Monroe located at Old Point Comfort in Hampton. This was the 1st school for freedmen and it marked the official beginning of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, which later grew into Hampton University.

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