Mary Sampson Leary

Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston (1835-1915) was an American abolitionist, the first Black woman to attend Oberlin College, and wife of notable abolitionists Lewis Sheridan Leary and Charles Henry Langston. She was also the grandmother of Langston Hughes and raised him for part of his childhood, inspiring his future work. Early life Mary Sampson Patterson was born in North Carolina in 1835. She claimed that her grandparents had been a French trader and a Cherokee woman. She was born free, and was raised as the ward of a mason and his wife. Her father, John E. Patterson, would take in slaves as apprentices, in order to help them obtain freedom, and then helped them move to the North. In 1855, Patterson survived an attempted enslavement. Following this, she moved to Oberlin, Ohio in 1857, where she was the first black woman to attend the preparatory department of Oberlin College. Accounts vary as to whether she attended the college itself. Patterson married fellow Fayetteville-native Lewis Sheridan Leary, a fugitive slave and abolitionist, on May 12, 1858. While little is known of their courtship, they may have known each other as children. Shortly after their marriage, she abandoned her studies. Together, they operated a station on the Underground Railroad. In 1859, Leary went on a trip, leaving behind an either new mother or pregnant Mary. He participated in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and was killed in the aftermath. According to Hughes, a friend returned Leary's shawl to Mary and was treasured throughout the rest of her life, though this story may be apocryphal. The shawl, which some theorize Leary used to create a quilt, accompanied Hughes throughout his life. Leary advocated for the reburial of the victims of the raid.