{"id":2876,"date":"2018-09-13T00:37:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T00:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2018-09-27T16:51:09","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T16:51:09","slug":"new-historical-margaret-mercer-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/new-historical-margaret-mercer-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"New Historical Marker Honors Margaret Mercer (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Edward Spannaus,\u00a0Board Member<\/em><\/strong>
\n Lovettsville Historical Society & Museum<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"MargaretEducator and abolitionist Margaret Mercer was honored at the\u00a0unveiling<\/a>\u00a0of the Belmont Chapel Historic Marker at St. David\u2019s Episcopal Church and School in Ashburn on Sept. 9.<\/p>\n

Margaret Mercer was a cousin of Rep. Charles Fenton Mercer, the Federalist-Whig political leader who build the Aldie Mill.<\/p>\n

In 1836 Margaret purchased the Ludwell Lee estate Belmont, where she established a school which broke through the conventions of the time \u2013 educating girls as well as boys, blacks as well as whites, and children of the poor as well as of the wealthy.\u00a0 She insisted her pupils learn mathematics and science, astronomy, philosophy, and religion.\u00a0\u00a0 She also included courses in the latest agricultural methods, hopingly thereby to lessen the local economy\u2019s dependence on slave labor. She taught all of her African-American employees to read and write, which was illegal under Virginia law.\u00a0 Mercer was also a leader of the American Colonization Society, which advocated the repatriation and resettlement of slaves in Africa, giving rise to the country of Liberia.<\/p>\n

St. David\u2019s church has close ties to Liberia today, and that African nation was well-represented at the dedication ceremony on Sept. 9, including by a spokesman for its Ambassador to the United States.<\/p>\n

\"Margaret<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1841, Margaret Mercer built Belmont Chapel, designed by her cousin, the Baltimore architect Benjamin Latrobe. The chapel became a center for community worship, education, and social activities, with its last known use being for a wedding in 1951. Subsequently, the road leading to the chapel became overgrown and the property fell into disrepair. A fire set by vandals in 1963 destroyed most of the building except for the foundation and a portion of the stone fa\u00e7ade.The 250 graves surrounding the chapel and overgrown and lost to memory.\u00a0 In recent years, as suburban development overtook the Ashburn area, the Chapel site and graveyard were rediscovered, and a researcher also discovered that the Episcopal Church still owned the land around the old Chapel.\u00a0 The graveyard and a monument erected in her honor by Margaret Mercer\u2019s students were restored, and St. David\u2019s Church and School were opened in 1990.<\/p>\n

As historian Eugene Scheel pointed out in a 1992 Washington Post article<\/a>, Margaret Mercer was controversial in life and death; and even in the late 19th<\/sup>and the 20th<\/sup>centuries, efforts were made to erase the history of her contribution to education in Loudoun County.<\/p>\n

See also:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eugene Scheel, “A Life Devoted to Freedom and Opportunity,” the life of Margaret Mercer,<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/local\/2002\/03\/17\/a-life-devoted-to-freedom-and-opportunity\/20ce0a20-63ed-4819-a02b-86ff04caff70\/?utm_term=.571a4da0af16<\/a><\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

https:\/\/loudounnow.com\/2018\/09\/10\/mercers-legacy-celebrated-with-historical-marker-dedication\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Edward Spannaus,\u00a0Board Member Lovettsville Historical Society & Museum   Educator and abolitionist Margaret Mercer was honored at the\u00a0unveiling\u00a0of the Belmont Chapel Historic Marker at St. David\u2019s Episcopal Church and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2883,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions\/2883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}