What do a Civil War-era schoolteacher, ancient Druids, and Gothic cathedrals all have in common? The mighty oak tree.

In this episode, we explore the story of Mary Smith Peake, a free Black businesswoman in Hampton, Virginia, who in September 1861 began teaching formerly enslaved people to read and write beneath the branches of a southern live oak at a time when doing so had been illegal in Virginia for nearly 30 years. That same tree would later host the first local reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, earning it the name it carries to this day: the Emancipation Oak. The site eventually became the foundation of what is now Hampton University.

From there, we travel through centuries of oak mythology and symbolism — sacred groves, Greek oracles, Norse thunder gods, Druidic wisdom, and the surprising connection between oak forests and the soaring arches of Gothic cathedrals.

In this episode:

• Mary Peake's life and the contraband order that made her school possible
• Why oak trees have been gathering places and sacred sites across cultures worldwide
• The Cherokee relationship with red oak and its medicinal uses
• How to choose an oak for your own garden

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