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Mary Smith Peake (1823 - February 22, 1862) was an American teacher and humanitarian. She started teaching the children of former slaves under a large oak tree and the American Missionary Association paid her some salary and gave support as its first black teacher. In 1863, the Virginia Peninsula community gathered under Peake's tree to hear the first Southern reading of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and it became known as the Emancipation Oak. Soon the AMA provided Peake with Brown Cottage, long considered the first facility of Hampton Institute (Hampton University). Engraving by Frederick W. Halpin, 1863 (cropped and cleaned).