Famous Footsteps
Hampto n is d i s t i n g ui she d b y a n umb er o f A frican A m erican leaders who have li ve d, vi s ited , w or k e d o r s t ud i e d h e re . Th eir co nt rib ut io ns cleared pat hs fo r m an y that fo l l o we d a n d fo r t ho se who co nt inue t o fo rge ah ead. W il lia m T u c k e r Two of the original Africans to come to Virginia, Anthony and Isabell, became servants of Captain William Tucker commander of the fort at Point Comfort. Their child William became the first recorded baby of African descent to be baptized in English North America. The service was held on January 3, 1624.
C e sa r Ta rr a n t During the Revolutionary War, this Hampton slave successfully piloted an American schooner, the Patriot, into a Royal Navy vessel, rendering the British ship unnavigable. Tarrant, who was owned by Carter Tarrant, was freed from slavery on November 14, 1789, when the Virginia legislature passed an act that gave him freedom for his heroic efforts during the war. Hampton’s Cesar Tarrant Elementary School is named in his honor.
Mary P e a k e In 1861, Mary Peake began in Hampton what is believed to be the first organized effort to teach African Americans to read and write. A freeborn black, Peake rejected the laws that prohibited such teaching. Her role as a prominent educator was publicly recognized on the 100th anniversary of her death, when a Hampton elementary school was named in her honor. Her grave can be found at Elmerton Cemetery on Wine Street, north of Pembroke Avenue.
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S he pard Ma l l ory, Frank Ba ker an d Ja mes Townsend Shortly after the onset of the Civil War, three enslaved men escaped and sought refuge at Fort Monroe, setting in motion a series of events that would have far-reaching consequences for African Americans. Arriving in May 1861, the three men purported to have been Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker and James Townsend, were given refuge by Major General Benjamin F. Butler under the declaration that they were “contraband of war.” Soon thousands of runaways journeyed to the Union post that had earned the nickname “Freedom’s Fortress.”
Bo o k e r Tal iaferro Washingt on One of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute’s most famous graduates and a former slave, Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington traveled to the Hampton school from southwest Virginia on foot and then worked as a janitor to pay for his education. He graduated in 1875. Washington helped integrate Native Americans into the Hampton Normal and Agriculture Institute program in 1878. He later founded Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute.
Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman’s efforts as one of the daring “conductors” of the Underground Railroad resulted in her guiding more than 300 slaves to safety, including her own parents, and earned her the nickname “Black Moses.” Following the war, she arrived in Hampton in 1865 to serve as a nurse to the former slaves who had made their way to Fort Monroe. Soon after, she was appointed to the position “Matron,” or nurse, of Hampton’s Colored Hospital by the Surgeon of the United States Army.
Wil l iam Roscoe Davis Born in the 1830s, Davis was raised in Norfolk and taught by his master to read and write. An original contraband, Davis escaped to Freedom’s Fortress. An eloquent speaker, Davis became a minister and progressive Hampton leader, speaking on tour nationally in effort to raise funds to benefit the American Missionary Association. Davis married Nancy Davis, sister of Thomas Peake, the husband of Mary Peake.