Freedmen's Schools in Oxon Hill

Colored School No.1 in Election District No. 6: River View School, The Rosenwald School & The Sojourner Truth Elementary School

The Hatton Family of Oxon Hill, Maryland was a black and free family prior to the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. Henry Hatton was freed at the age of 28 in 1840 when his enslaver, Mrs. Henry C. Hardey, passed away. A man of light skin complexion, Henry worked as a blacksmith. Henry, his wife Martha, and the rest of the Hatton family lived on the outskirts of the territory that is Oxon Hill Farm today when Henry purchased 21 acres of the Mount Welby Farm. The Hatton family are considered the first people to found a primary school for the freedmen of southern Maryland. At the same time, schools were also built in Baltimore and the eastern shore. There is documentation of the Hatton family requesting building materials such as lumber and shingles from the Freedmen's Bureau during the Reconstruction Era in 1867. The first name of the one room school was “Colored School No. 1 in District 6.” The school became known as the Riverview School.

George Hatton, Henry’s son, wrote the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of Colored People, and expressed his interest in being the first teacher of the school when he returned from serving in the Civil War. According to the Riverview school record, it was Ellen Fisher who served as the first teacher of the school until 1869. Josephine Hatton, the daughter of Henry and Martha, was appointed as the school's permanent teacher by the Baltimore Association in 1872, she served until 1874.

Henry Hatton, Alfred Travis, and Henry Butler (who also lived in the same lands outside of Oxon Hill Farm), all served as trustees for the school and the black community of Oxon Hill. After maintaining the Riverview school building for 44 years, the community of Oxon Hill petitioned for a new building in 1889, but were met with much discourse. Between 1889 and 1901, many black leaders of the Oxon Hill community traveled to Upper Marlboro with the request for building funds. The community purchased a plot of land in 1902, but it was not until 19 years later that construction was approved. To build the new school, the Oxon Hill community raised $500, received $1000 from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and requested another $2000 from the Prince George’s County Board of School Commissioners. The construction of the Rosenwald School took place from 1921 to 1923.

“The committee congratulates Oxon Hill Community upon the fine showing it makes, not only because of its new two room Rosenwald School, but especially because of the very splendid way this community backs up its leaders.”

In 1931, the Rosenwald School received electricity, a stove and various repairs. Through the efforts of the black Oxon Hill community, upgrades and more community facilities opened until the 1940s. Eventually the Rosenwald School joined Fort Foote’s school and was renamed Sojourner Truth Elementary. In present day, the land is now the location of Oxon Hill Branch Library, located approximately two miles away from Oxon Hill Farm & Oxon Cove National Park.

Source: Floyd, Bianca P. Records and Recollections: Early History In Prince George's County, Maryland, (PG County, MD: Maryland National-Capital Park and Planning Commission, 1989).