The Emancipation Oak
Hampton, Virginia, United States
The Hampton University oak under which Mary S. Peake taught enslaved and freed people from 1861 and where the Emancipation Proclamation was first read in the South.
On the campus of Hampton University stands a sprawling live oak under which Mary Smith Peake, daughter of a freed woman, began teaching contraband and freed people in 1861, in violation of Virginia law, under the protection of the Union army lines at Fortress Monroe. It was beneath the same branches that the Emancipation Proclamation was first read in the South, in 1863. The tree is the anchor of the story of Black education in the region and one of the most consequential trees in American history.
The campus community treats it as a living monument; it is a National Historic Landmark and the site where the university's story is annually retold. For visitors the combination of shade, scale, and history gives the meeting of ordinary tree and extraordinary event its full weight.
Visiting
The oak is beside the entrance drive of Hampton University, Hampton VA; viewable from the public roadside. See Hampton University.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emancipation_Oak.jpg), CC BY-SA.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories