Mary Sampson Leary

Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston (born Mary Sampson Patterson; c. 1835 – 1915) was an American abolitionist, the first African-American 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 about 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. 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. In 1859, Leary went on a trip, leaving behind an either new mother or pregnant Mary. 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.

Shortly before or after the raid on Harper's Ferry, Leary gave birth to a daughter. Her name varies based on source, including Lois, Louise, Loise, and Louisa. She temporarily lived with her parents,

On January 18, 1869, Mary married one of Lewis's friends and fellow abolitionist Charles Henry Langston. In 1872, they moved to Lawrence, Kansas. The couple bought a house near Kansas University, where they opened a grocery store and raised a foster son, Desalines Langston.

In 1870, the Langstons had a son, Nathaniel Turner Langston, named after Nat Turner. In January 1873, they had another child, Carolina "Carrie" Mercer Langston.

In 1892, Charles died, leaving Mary "nothing but a pair of gold earrings and a mortgaged house." In 1906 Carrie left Langston with her mother so that she could pursue her own career. Hughes also recalled that, unlike other African American women in Lawrence, she would not work for others, and so did not take jobs like taking in washing or going out to cook for white families. However, her storytelling made a large impact on him. She read him stories from the Bible and Grimm's Fairy Tales, but also told him stories about slavery, the fight against slavery, and their family.

In 1915, Mary Leary Langston died, leaving Langston to be raised briefly by his mother and stepfather, and then by Mary's friends, the Reeds. The character of the story-telling grandmother is also present in Not Without Laughter in the character of Aunt Hager.

Mary Langston also served as inspiration for Erica Dawson's poem "Langston Hughes's Grandma Mary Writes a Love Letter to Lewis Leary Years after He Dies Fighting at Harper's Ferry."