The campus was founded on the grounds of "Little Scotland", a former plantation in
Elizabeth City County that is located on the
Hampton River. It overlooked Hampton Roads and was not far from
Fortress Monroe and the
Grand Contraband Camp, that gathered formerly
enslaved men and women who sought refuge with
Union forces in the South during the first year of the war. Their facilities represented freedom. In 1861 the
American Missionary Association (AMA) responded to the former slaves' need for education and hired
Mary Smith Peake as its first teacher at the camp. She had already secretly been teaching slaves and free Black people in the area despite the state's legal prohibition. She first taught for the AMA on September 17, 1861, and was said to gather her pupils under a large oak. In 1863 the
Emancipation Proclamation was read here—the first place in the
Confederate states. From then on the big tree was called the
Emancipation Oak. The tree, now a symbol of both the university and of the city, survives as part of the designated
National Historic Landmark District at Hampton University. The
Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, later called the
Hampton Institute, was founded in 1868 after the war by the biracial leadership of the
American Missionary Association, who were chiefly
Congregational and
Presbyterian ministers. It was first led by former
Union General
Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Among the school's famous alumni is
Booker T. Washington, an educator who was hired as the first principal at the
Tuskegee Institute, which he developed for decades.
Civil War During the
American Civil War (1861–1865), Union-held
Fortress Monroe in southeastern
Virginia at the mouth of
Hampton Roads became a gathering point and safe haven of sorts for
fugitive slaves. The commander, General
Benjamin F. Butler, determined they were
"contraband of war", to protect them from being returned to slaveholders, who clamored to reclaim them. As numerous individuals sought freedom behind
Union lines, the Army arranged for the construction of the
Grand Contraband Camp nearby, from materials reclaimed from the ruins of
Hampton, which had been burned by the retreating
Confederate Army. This area was later called "Slabtown". Hampton University traces its roots to
Mary S. Peake, who began in 1861 with outdoor classes for freedmen, whom she taught under what is now the landmark
Emancipation Oak in the nearby area of
Elizabeth City County. In 1863 the newly issued
Emancipation Proclamation was read to a gathering under the historic tree there.
After the War: teaching teachers After the War, a
normal school (teacher training school) was formalized in 1868, with former
Union brevet Brigadier General
Samuel C. Armstrong (1839–1893) as its first principal. The new school was established on the grounds of a former
plantation named "Little Scotland", which had a view of Hampton Roads. The original school buildings fronted the Hampton River. Legally
chartered in 1870 as a
land grant school, it was first known as
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Typical of historically Black colleges, Hampton received much of its financial support in the years following the Civil War from the American Missionary Association (whose Black and white leaders represented the
Congregational and
Presbyterian churches), other church groups, and former officers and soldiers of the Union Army. One of the many Civil War veterans who gave substantial sums to the school was General
William Jackson Palmer, a Union cavalry commander from
Philadelphia. He later built the
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and founded
Colorado Springs, Colorado. As the Civil War began in 1861, although his
Quaker upbringing made Palmer abhor violence, his passion to see the slaves freed compelled him to enter the war. He was awarded the
Medal of Honor for bravery in 1894. (The current Palmer Hall on the campus is named in his honor.) In 1872
Thomas P. Fenner was hired by Armstrong to create and lead the Hampton Singers (then known as the Hampton Jubilee Singers) in response to the tremendous financial success of the
Fisk Jubilee Singers 1871 concert tour. Armstrong hoped that a similar choir at Hampton could also raise money for the financially struggling school. Fenner and the choir toured widely and were able to raise enough money through concerts to pay for the construction of Virginia Hall, the first dormitory for women at the Hampton Institute. Further funds raised by the choir in the 1870s were responsible for stabilizing the school's finances overall and prevented the school from closing. After Armstrong's death, Hampton's leaders continued to develop a highly successful external relations program that forged a network of devoted supporters. By 1900, Hampton was the wealthiest school serving African Americans, largely due to its success in development and fundraising. Hampton also had the only library school in the United States for educating Black librarians. The Hampton Institute Library School opened in 1925 and through its Negro Teacher-Librarian Program (NTLTP) trained and issued professional degrees to 183 Black librarians. to Tuskegee to lead the Agriculture Department. Together they enticed
George Washington Carver to the Tuskegee Agriculture faculty upon his graduation with a master's degree from Iowa State University in 1896. Carver provided such technical strength in agriculture that, in 1900, Washington assigned Greene to establish a demonstration of Black business capability and economic independence off-campus in Tuskegee. This project, entirely Black-owned, comprised 4,000 lots of real estate and was formally established and designated Greenwood in 1901, as a demonstration for Black-owned business and residential districts in every city in the nation with a significant Black population. After Washington visited
Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1905 and addressed a large gathering there, the Oklahomans followed the Tuskegee model and named Tulsa's Black-owned and operated district "Greenwood" in 1906.
Native Americans In 1878, Hampton established a formal education program for
Native Americans to accommodate men who had been held as prisoners of war. In 1875 at the end of the
American Indian Wars, the United States Army sent seventy-two warriors from the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo Nations, to imprisonment and exile in
St. Augustine, Florida. Essentially they were used as hostages to persuade their peoples in the West to keep peace. Lieutenant
Richard Henry Pratt supervised them at
Fort Marion and began to arrange for their education in the English language and American culture. St. Augustine was attracting numerous visitors from the North as it became known as a winter resort. Many became interested in the Native Americans held at Fort Marion and volunteered as teachers. They also provided the men with art supplies. Some of the men created what is now known as
ledger art in this period. Some of the resulting works (including by
David Pendleton Oakerhater) are held by the
Smithsonian Institution. At the end of the warriors' incarceration, Pratt convinced seventeen of the younger men to enroll at Hampton Institute for additional education. He also recruited additional Native American students: a total of seventy Native Americans, young men and women from various tribes, mostly from the Plains rather than the acculturated tribes of Virginia, joined that first class. Because Virginia's First Families sometimes boasted of their Native American heritage through
Pocahontas, some supporters hoped that the Native American students would help locals to accept the institute's Black students. The Black students were also supposed to help "civilize" the Native American students to current American society, and the Native Americans to "uplift the Negro[es]".
The Red Moon was a theatrical show featuring a fictionalized version of the school. In 1923, in the face of growing controversy over racial mingling, after the former Confederate states had
disenfranchised Blacks and imposed
Jim Crow, the Native American program ended. Native Americans stopped sending their boys to the school after some employers fired Native American men because they had been educated with Blacks. The program's final director resigned because she could not prevent "amalgamation" between the Native American girls and Black boys. In 1945 the Austrian-American psychologist, art educator, and author of the influential text book
Creative and Mental Growth Viktor Lowenfeld joined the Hampton faculty as an assistant professor of
industrial arts and eventually became chair of the Art Department. By 1971 the university offered 42 evening classes in programs including "Educational Psychology", "Introduction to Oral Communication", "Modern Mathematics", and "Playwriting", among others. At the time, the tuition cost for these courses was $30 per semester hour. With the addition of departments and graduate programs, it became Hampton University in 1984. Originally located in
Elizabeth City County, it was long-located in the Town of
Phoebus, incorporated in 1900. Phoebus and Elizabeth City County were consolidated with the neighboring
City of Hampton to form a much larger
independent city in 1952. The City of Hampton uses the Emancipation Oak on its official seal. From 1960 to 1970, noted
diplomat and educator
Jerome H. Holland was president of the Hampton Institute. The university and its leadership has also been met with criticism. In 2018, Hampton University students launched a protest calling for the administration to address several concerns they believed to be longstanding and urgent, including food quality, living conditions and the handling of sexual assault complaints. The university released a statement indicating that it was "moving forward" to address student concerns and issues. In July 2020, philanthropist
MacKenzie Scott donated $30 million (~$ in ) to Hampton. The donation is the largest single gift in Hampton's history. Hampton's president has sole discretion on how funds will be used but has committed to consulting with other university leaders on the best way to allocate the generous donation. In June 2022,
William R. Harvey retired as the 12th president of Hampton University after 43 years of service. He is the longest serving president in Hampton's history and one of the longest serving college presidents in the nation. He is succeeded by
Darrell K. Williams who is a 1983 graduate of Hampton University. == Presidents ==