Syndication News Column:
Oaks - Part II

According to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, residents of Hampton first listened to a reading
of the Emancipation Proclamation under this Oak tree - the Emancipation Oak – in early 1863. 
(This photograph was provided courtesy of Mr. Jerry Gammon, April 17, 2019.)

Oak trees are found throughout the United States.  Roadways are named after the Oak tree in communities from Alaska to Florida and from Maine to Hawaii.

Beyond acting as the source for the names of streets, several Oak trees stand as symbols for important events in the history of the United States.

One of these Oak trees is located in Hampton, Virginia – the Emancipation Oak.

The nomination form for sections of the Hampton Institute (now known as “Hampton University”) to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places stated that “Under the boughs of the historic Emancipation Oak, with a limb-spread some 98 yards in circumference, the Emancipation Proclamation was read to Hampton residents in 1863.”  This nomination form was issued in 1969.

This is the first page of the five pages that comprised the Emancipation Proclamation.  (This image was
provided courtesy of The United States National Archives and Records Administration, January 1, 1863.)

“President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war,” according to The United States National Archives and Records Administration.

A key part of this executive order stated that “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the United States.  Instead, it continued a process in which slavery ended over time in specific areas of the country.

Slavery had been outlawed gradually in a number of Northern states in the decades after the American Revolutionary War.

Human enslavement was abolished in the District of Columbia the year before the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.  “Slavery remained legal in the District until April 16, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed into law an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia,” according to The National Archives.  This act “originally provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to loyal Unionist masters of up to $300 for each slave, and voluntary colonization of former slaves outside the United States.”

A couple of months later, on June 19, 1862, the United States Congress passed legislation that abolished slavery in all Federal territories, according to the Library of Congress.

Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri were among the areas of the country where slavery did not end because of the Emancipation Proclamation.

President Abraham Lincoln is seen here in 1863.  (The photograph was produced by
Mr. Alexander Gardner and was provided by the Library of Congress, 1863.)
 

On January 2, 1864, The Santa Fe Gazette printed an address by President Lincoln to the United States Congress.  In this address, the President stated that “I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation nor shall I return to slavery any person who is made free by the terms of the proclamation or by any act of Congress.”

The Emancipation Oak is a living testament to those ideals.

According to details on the website of Hampton University, “The Emancipation Oak stands near the entrance of the Hampton University campus and is a lasting symbol of the university’s rich heritage and perseverance.”

In the April 14, 1906, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the newspaper reported that “slaves of this region first heard read President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation” under the branches of this Oak tree.  The area around this Oak tree had already been the site where former slaves were receiving an education in Hampton.

During much of the Civil War and in subsequent years, the tree was known as the “Butler Oak” as well as the “Freedman’s Oak”.

“Butler Oak” was the name given to the tree because of the leadership actions of United States Major
General Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe in Hampton.  (The photograph of Major General
Butler was produced by J. Gurney & Son and was provided by the Library of Congress, circa 1861-1865.)

“On May 23, 1861, three Virginia slaves escaped from Norfolk at night and rowed a small boat across the harbor to Hampton,” according to the website of the City of Hampton.  “They arrived at Fort Monroe, which had remained under Union control, and asked for asylum.  Post commander Major General Benjamin Butler met with the three – Frank Baker, Sheppard Mallory and James Townsend – and determined he would not return them.  When a Confederate officer requested their return under the Fugitive Slave Act, Butler refused, declaring the three to be ‘contraband of war.’”

This decision by one Union military leader had meaningful impact in Virginia and throughout the South.  The City of Hampton indicated that “By the end of the [Civil] War, more than 10,000 former slaves were living in large tent cities outside…[Fort Monroe].”

A news article dated March 18, 1934, in the Daily Press of Newport News, stated that the “Butler Oak” was renamed as the “Emancipation Oak” in 1887.

“Freedman’s Oak” was another early name for this Oak tree, according to a news article dated February 23, 1906, in The Racine Weekly Journal.  The newspaper reported that this Oak tree was one of the Famous Trees of the United States as designated by the American Civic Association.

“Freedman” was the name given to enslaved African American men that received their freedom through governmental actions.  “Freedwoman” was the corresponding word used for African American women that were slaves set free through acts of the government.

A historical highway marker, installed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 1997, recognized the historic importance of the Emancipation Oak:  “To the west, on the grounds of Hampton University, stands the Emancipation Oak.  Under its sheltering limbs, protected and encouraged by the occupying Union army and prominent local church leaders, Mary Smith Kelsey Peake (1823-22 Feb. 1862) taught her fellow African Americans to read and write as the Civil War began.  She founded the first black school in Hampton at Brown Cottage in September 1861;  it was a forerunner of Hampton University.  In 1863, following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, Hampton residents gathered beneath the oak to hear the text read aloud.”

Part III will highlight additional information about Oak trees.

© 2019 Richard McDonough