Description
Mary Peake began teaching contraband at Fort Monroe in the autumn of 1861. Two years later, General Benjamin F. Butler had this school constructed and it remained under military control until 1865, when the American Missionary Association began supplying teachers. It was later turned over to the trustees of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, who in 1871 allowed the nascent public school system of Elizabeth City County to manage it. from Mary Frances Morgan Armstrong and Helen W. Ludlow, Hampton and Its Students. By Two of its Teachers (1874), p. 66 http://www.virginiamemory.com/online-exhibitions/exhibits/show/remaking-virginia/item/617
