Mary S. Peake

Mary Smith Peake, born Mary Smith Kelsey (1823-February 22, 1862), was an American teacher, humanitarian and a member of the black elite in Hampton, best known for starting a school for the children of former slaves starting in the fall of 1861 under what became known as the Emancipation Oak tree in present-day Hampton, Virginia near Fort Monroe. The first teacher hired by the American Missionary Association, she was a associated with its later founding of Hampton University in 1868.