The Williamsburg Bray School: Reconstructing the Landscape of African American Education in Colonial Virginia

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Established in 1760 with support from a London-based philanthropy called The Associates of Dr. Bray, the Williamsburg Bray School was one of the earliest institutions dedicated to the education of free and enslaved African American children in America. The school’s curriculum was designed to teach students Anglican catechism and included lessons in reading, sewing, and possibly writing and arithmetic. The small building that housed the school from 1760 to 1765 still stands and is currently undergoing restoration by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists have conducted extensive archaeological excavations at the original site of the school to determine how the landscape surrounding the building was organized and utilized by the students and their teacher. This paper discusses the challenges of interpreting an educational landscape and explores how archaeology can illuminate the stories of African American children during the colonial period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2023 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow