The large, sprawling southern live oak (Quercus virginiana), believed to be over 200 years old,[2] is 98 feet (30 m) in diameter, with branches which extend upward as well as laterally.

The United States Army defined the formerly enslaved people as "contraband of war" to legally provide them asylum.

In November 1861, the American Missionary Association (AMA) asked Mary S. Peake to teach children of freedmen at the Grand Contraband Camp, Virginia.

[6] After the conclusion of the war, General Samuel C. Armstrong and the American Missionary Association founded Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute there in 1868.

In the early 20th century, collaborating with the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, Washington and staff at the Tuskegee Institute helped to establish dozens of rural schools for African-American children across the Southern United States.