Margaret Mercer - Ashburn, Virginia - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Margaret Mercer's grave is a tall obelisk surrounded by small bushes next to the remains of the Belmont Chapel.

Grave text:
Sacred to the memory of
Margaret Mercer
Born July 1st 1791
Died Sept. 17th 1846
Her remains repose beneath
the channel of this
chapel built by her own
self denying labors

This Monument
is erected by her pupils
as a testimony of their
admiration of her elevated
Christian character, and
of their gratitude for her
invaluable instructions.

Description: "Margaret Mercer was born on July 1, 1791, to Maryland governor John Francis Mercer and his wife Sophia Sprigg. Mercer was their fourth child. She grew up in the family home named Cedar Park in Galesville. She had an issue with her father owning slaves; he had 72 of them by the time he died. After her father's death in 1821, Mercer taught at a school in Elmwood for four years. She taught classes five days a week, including helping teach Sunday school. On Saturdays, she worked as a member of the Virginia Colonization Society, a part of the American Colonization Society. The aim of the society was to purchase slaves' freedom and have them settle in Africa. In 1823, the American Colonization Society bought land from tribes on Guinea Coast, which is in West Africa. The land purchase was named Liberia. Three of Mercer's cousins participated in the movement: members of Congress Charles Fenton Mercer and James Mercer Garnett, as well as architect John H. B. Latrobe. Charles Fenton Mercer and Garnett were vice presidents of the Virginia Colonization Society, while Latrobe was a well-known colonizationist in Maryland. Mercer had previously inherited some of her father's slaves upon his death, but she was unable to send any of them to Africa because her father's estate was in debt. She started a school for girls at her Cedar Park home in 1825 with all of her money, and she later paid off the debt with the profit raised from the school. Mercer freed all of the slaves, sending six of them to Liberia. They arrived in Monrovia on a schooner named Margaret Mercer. The captain of the schooner was Abels, who remained in Liberia for 13 days and wrote a positive letter about his experience in 1832. Three years after the freed slaves arrived in Monrovia, three of them died, one moved back to the United States, and another one moved further away. It is unknown what happened to the sixth freed slave. The colonization movement later ended due to similar situations. In 1836, Ludwell Lee, the organizer of the Loudoun chapter of the American Colonization Society, died and his 1,000-plus-acre plantation was for sale. The plantation was named Belmont and Mercer opened a school there named Belmont Academy. Mercer intended to emphasize how important agriculture is and how learning about it could remove slave labor. Along with agriculture, other courses were in philosophy, ethics, the Bible, French, Latin, geography, geology, and astronomy. Her students were mostly daughters of southern gentry and they paid $250 each year for tuition. She employed seven teachers and only one of her students was a boy, John Morris Wample, who was the son of one of the teachers and later became a Confederate engineer. Due to the nearest church being far away on horseback, Mercer asked Latrobe to build Belmont Chapel. In 1841, the chapel opened for services and Bible study. Children of slaves and freed slaves participated with the schoolgirls at the chapel. Services were held at the chapel until 1936. The chapel was destroyed by arson in 1967. - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mercer) Date of birth: 07/01/1791 Date of death: 09/17/1846 Area of notoriety: Education Marker Type: Monument Setting: Outdoor Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link] Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Not listed

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