A School for Williamsburg's Enslaved: The Bray School Archaeological Project

Summary

In 1760 the London-based philanthropy, the Associates of Dr. Bray, established a charity school for the religious education of free and enslaved African American children in Williamsburg, the eighteenth-century capitol of the Virginia colony.   Known as the Bray School, the school was briefly housed in a rented dwelling adjacent to the campus of the College of William and Mary.  The archaeological investigation of the suspected site of the Bray school in 2012 was a rare opportunity to materially examine the daily lives of enslaved Africans and African Americans in a context other than a rural plantation quarter.  This paper reports on the site's recent investigation, paying special attention to the identification of intact archaeological evidence of the site's eighteenth-century development and layout, as well as evidence relating to those receiving instruction at the Bray School. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The African Diaspora   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 691