Latest news with #BraySchool
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Excavated One of America's Oldest Schools—and Found a Secret Cellar
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The Williamsburg Bray School is one of the oldest schools in the United States to educate Black students. Archeologists discovered remains of the school on the William & Mary campus in Virginia. Finds include the foundation of the school, a previously-undocumented cellar, and more than two centuries worth of buried artifacts. Few schools can say they're older than the countries in which they reside, but the Williamsburg Bray School holds that distinct honor. The Bray School was also one of the oldest schools in the United States dedicated to educating Black Americans. From 1760 to 1774, head teacher Ann Wager taught both free and enslaved students lessons from the Anglican Church. While the Bray School may seem revolutionary for its time, its history was actually much darker. The school was founded for the flawed purpose of convincing enslaved children to accept their circumstances. Today, the school serves as a key chapter in the history of Black education, yet historians know little about the students who actually attended. Luckily, researchers just discovered a few more pieces of the puzzle: the near-complete foundation of the Bray School and an undocumented cellar filled with centuries worth of artifacts. The remains fall on the College of William & Mary's (W&M) campus in Virginia; excavations were led by the school's Center for Archeological Research. According to a press release from W&M, the remnants of the cellar are sizable, measuring 36 feet by 18 feet. Tom Higgins, an archeologist for the Center, explained in the release that the cellar likely had multiple levels and was dug soon after the original foundation was laid. These recent excavations revealed the bottom of the cellar to be nearly 18 inches higher than previous research found. 'The discovery of this cellar is thrilling,' W&M President Katherine Rowe said in the release. 'The roots of our city and university entwine here. Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic, from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed, up through the early 20th century.' Perhaps even more valuable than the cellar itself is the historic treasure archeologists found while digging. The artifacts discovered at the site provide a rich story spanning from the 18th to the mid-20th century. The newly found broken pottery shards, slate pencil pieces, buttons, and jewelry painted a picture of everyday life at the Bray School. According to the release, one of the team's favorite discoveries was part of a broken glass depicting the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva. One researcher at the center, Michele L. Brumfield, explained that the glass may have come from one of the school girls furnishing her dorm room, though the researchers say they're hesitant to draw any conclusions because 'it's early days.' Now that these once-lost stories have come to light, some of the artifacts will be displayed as a permanent installation in W&M's Gates Hall. Other treasures will be lent to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and exhibited at the Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Archaeology Center once it opens in 2026. In the meantime, there's still much more to be done at the site. 'This is exciting,' Maureen Elgersman Lee, director of the W&M Bray School Lab, said in the press release. 'What else are we about to learn? We are not done understanding the history of the Williamsburg Bray School, the history of Black education. We are not done learning the history of this area, and we are certainly not done learning the history of this country.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Boston Globe
19-06-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Enslaved children were educated here. Now, the public can learn the history.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The opening of the school comes at a particularly fraught time in the United States as Black history, diversity and established historical narratives are being challenged, sanitized or even erased. Its story also unlocks another layer of the historic city, whose identity is shaped, in part, by its role in the American Revolution. Located in the coastal Tidewater region, Williamsburg was once the capital of the British colony of Virginia. The city is a unique place to examine colonial life — including slavery — and the nation's founding ideals. Advertisement The school's discovery was based on research by Terry L. Meyers, Chancellor professor of English emeritus at William & Mary. It inspired a years-long mission among a broad community of scholars, historians, archaeologists, genealogists, and descendants to learn more about the school and its students. It was rare during the colonial period for a space to be dedicated to formally educating enslaved and free Black children. In 1831, decades after the school had closed, Virginia outlawed the practice. Advertisement 'The Bray School is happening around the same time that the fundamental ideas of American identity are being shaped and articulated. The existence of the school tells us that African Americans were a part of the fabric of Williamsburg despite the desire to not see them,' said Maureen Elgersman Lee, director of the William & Mary Bray School Lab. 'The children grew up. They created lives within the system they lived in, whether free or enslaved. They entered this new period, this soon-to-be republic, and they were part of America's story.' The Williamsburg school was one of five Bray schools in the colonial United States. As many as 400 Black children attended the school beginning in 1760. It moved to a larger facility after five years and closed in 1774 after the death of its only instructor, a white woman named Ann Wager. The existence of the school was known — through documentation and family stories — but it would be centuries before the original building was reclaimed from history. The first known record of the children, identified by name, is dated 1762. At the time, there were 30 students, ages 3 to 10. Twenty-seven were enslaved. Three were listed as free. They walked to school and attended Bruton Parish Church on Sundays. Around this time, African Americans represented more than half of Williamsburg's population. Advertisement 'I always knew there were pieces missing from the story of Blacks here in Williamsburg,' said Janice Canaday, who traces her family to Elisha and Mary Jones, who attended the Bray School in 1762 as free students. Canaday works as Colonial Williamsburg's African American community engagement manager and said she often thought about the children. 'I wonder what songs they sang.' she said, 'Did they go home, wherever home was, and share what they learned? Did they look out the window and somehow see hope?' Colonial Williamsburg, which re-creates the colonial era through a collection of more than 600 restored or reconstructed buildings and costumed interpreters, is taking steps to more comprehensively tell Black history. On Juneteenth, it is also breaking ground on a project to rebuild the African Baptist Meeting House, the first permanent structure used by the present-day congregation of the First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1776 and is just steps from where the school now sits. And, on the William & Mary campus, archaeologists have begun a formal dig in search of more pieces of Bray's remarkable history. Collectively, the three projects explore the complicated intersection of race and religion that shaped Williamsburg during the colonial period while also helping create a fuller portrait of enslaved and free Black life there. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which owns and operates the museum, has been accused of both presenting a whitewashed version of the colonial period and of going 'woke' by making the 18th-century storytelling more inclusive. Advertisement 'We are going to tell a full story,' said Ron Hurst, chief mission officer for the foundation and its senior vice president of education and historic resources. 'We are going to tell you the good and the bad. We are not going to tell you what to think about it. That's up to you.' For years, researchers have pored over official correspondence and archival documents related to Bray and have conducted oral interviews to piece together the school's history. The Bray schools were founded by the Associates of Dr. Bray, an Anglican Church missionary organization, to teach Black children to read and to follow the faith. The girls were also taught needlework. 'It was not exactly an altruistic mission,' Hurst said. 'The intent was to Christianize and particularly imbue the Anglican religion into children of color but at the same time reinforce what was perceived as their place in society. To me, one of the most interesting parts of this story is that once the tool of literacy is freed, you can't put that genie back in the bottle.'
Al Arabiya
19-06-2025
- General
- Al Arabiya
Archaeologists Unearth Foundation of 1760s Schoolhouse for Black Children
Archaeologists in Virginia have unearthed the foundation of a building from the 1700s that once supported the nation's oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children, William & Mary announced Wednesday. The university in Williamsburg said the foundation is nearly completely intact. Archaeologists also uncovered a cellar that is layered with centuries of artifacts, including slate pencil fragments and jewelry. The schoolhouse was later used as a dormitory housing some of the first generations of women to attend college in the US. 'The roots of our city and university entwine here,' said Katherine A. Rowe, William & Mary's president. 'Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed up through the early 20th century.' The Williamsburg Bray School taught hundreds of mostly enslaved students in the 1760s. The school rationalized slavery within a religious framework. And yet becoming literate also gave them more agency, with students sharing what they learned with family members. The schoolhouse then became a private home before it was incorporated into William & Mary's growing campus. The building was expanded for various purposes, including student housing, and later moved from its original location. Historians identified the structure in 2020 through a scientific method that examines tree rings in lumber. It was then moved to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum that includes parts of the original city. The museum has restored the schoolhouse and is working to identify the students' descendants. Meanwhile, archaeologists with Colonial Williamsburg recently uncovered the foundation and cellar during a major project by William & Mary to renovate a university building, Gates Hall. The school's archaeologists are also involved. Tom Higgins of William & Mary's Center for Archaeological Research said the cellar is not lined with bricks and was probably dug soon after the foundations were laid. Researchers have found handmade ceramics often associated with sites of enslavement and Indigenous communities, the university said. There are also items that appear to be more recent, such as a shard of glass depicting Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, war, and the arts. From 1924 to 1930, the building housed Methodist women attending William & Mary. 'We know that the girls at Brown Hall were furnishing their dorms,' said Michele Brumfield, senior researcher at the university's archaeological center. 'So maybe they were bringing in things like this.'
Associated Press
18-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Archaeologists unearth foundation of 1760s schoolhouse for Black children
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Archaeologists in Virginia have unearthed the foundation of a building from the 1700s that once supported the nation's oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children, William & Mary announced Wednesday. The university in Williamsburg said the foundation is nearly completely intact. Archaeologists also uncovered a cellar that is layered with centuries of artifacts, including slate pencil fragments and jewelry. The schoolhouse was later used as a dormitory, housing some of the first generations of women to attend college in the U.S. 'The roots of our city and university entwine here,' said Katherine A. Rowe, William & Mary's president. 'Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic, from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed, up through the early 20th century.' The Williamsburg Bray School taught hundreds of mostly enslaved students in the 1760s. The school rationalized slavery within a religious framework. And yet becoming literate also gave them more agency, with students sharing what they learned with family members. The schoolhouse then became a private home before it was incorporated into William & Mary's growing campus. The building was expanded for various purposes, including student housing, and later moved from its original location. Historians identified the structure in 2020 through a scientific method that examines tree rings in lumber. It was then moved to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum that includes parts of the original city. The museum has restored the schoolhouse and is working to identify the students' descendants. Meanwhile, archaeologists with Colonial Williamsburg recently uncovered the foundation and cellar during a major project by William & Mary to renovate a university building, Gates Hall. The school's archaeologists are also involved. Tom Higgins of William & Mary's Center for Archaeological Research said the cellar is not lined with bricks and 'was probably dug soon after the foundations were laid.' Researchers have found handmade ceramics often associated with sites of enslavement and Indigenous communities, the university said. There are also items that appear to be more recent, such as a shard of glass depicting Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, war and the arts. From 1924 to 1930, the building housed Methodist women attending William & Mary. 'We know that the girls at Brown Hall were furnishing their dorms,' said Michele Brumfield, senior researcher at the university's archaeological center. 'So maybe they were bringing in things like this.'
The Independent
18-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Archaeologists unearth foundation of 1760s schoolhouse for Black children
Archaeologists in Virginia have unearthed the foundation of a building from the 1700s that once supported the nation's oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children, William & Mary announced Wednesday. The university in Williamsburg said the foundation is nearly completely intact. Archaeologists also uncovered a cellar that is layered with centuries of artifacts, including slate pencil fragments and jewelry. The schoolhouse was later used as a dormitory, housing some of the first generations of women to attend college in the U.S. 'The roots of our city and university entwine here," said Katherine A. Rowe, William & Mary's president. "Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic, from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed, up through the early 20th century.' The Williamsburg Bray School taught hundreds of mostly enslaved students in the 1760s. The school rationalized slavery within a religious framework. And yet becoming literate also gave them more agency, with students sharing what they learned with family members. The schoolhouse then became a private home before it was incorporated into William & Mary's growing campus. The building was expanded for various purposes, including student housing, and later moved from its original location. Historians identified the structure in 2020 through a scientific method that examines tree rings in lumber. It was then moved to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum that includes parts of the original city. The museum has restored the schoolhouse and is working to identify the students' descendants. Meanwhile, archaeologists with Colonial Williamsburg recently uncovered the foundation and cellar during a major project by William & Mary to renovate a university building, Gates Hall. The school's archaeologists are also involved. Tom Higgins of William & Mary's Center for Archaeological Research said the cellar is not lined with bricks and 'was probably dug soon after the foundations were laid.' Researchers have found handmade ceramics often associated with sites of enslavement and Indigenous communities, the university said. There are also items that appear to be more recent, such as a shard of glass depicting Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, war and the arts. From 1924 to 1930, the building housed Methodist women attending William & Mary. 'We know that the girls at Brown Hall were furnishing their dorms,' said Michele Brumfield, senior researcher at the university's archaeological center. 'So maybe they were bringing in things like this.'
