The Williamsburg Bray School: Oldest School for Enslaved Children in America

The Williamsburg Bray School

• 🏫 The Williamsburg Bray School in Virginia is believed to be the oldest known schoolhouse for enslaved children in America.
• 🎯 Established by the Bray Associates, a missionary arm of the Anglican Church, it aimed to teach reading and the Christian faith.
• 🗓️ Archaeological research, including dendrochronology (tree ring dating), confirmed the building's construction date as 1760.

Curriculum and Intentions

• 📖 Students were taught to read using primers and the gospel, with the goal of strengthening their practice of the Church of England's faith.
• ✝️ The curriculum reinforced the tenets of slavery, aiming to make students docile, good Christians, and obedient followers of rules.
• ⚠️ A key intention was to inculcate the idea that their social status was given to them by God.
• ✍️ Notably, students were not taught to write due to the risk of them forging their enslavers' signatures.

Discovery and Descendants

• 🔍 Researchers from William and Mary, including Professor Terry Meyers, pieced together historical records and archaeological findings to locate the school.
• 📜 Three attendance lists or rosters have been found, naming 87 children who attended the school between 1760 and 1774.
• 🤝 Genealogists like Elizabeth Drimbus are working to identify students and their descendants through traditional genealogy and oral history.

Impact and Legacy

• 🌟 Descendants, like Janice Kennedy, find that knowing their family history empowers them and heightens their self-esteem.
• 🧠 Despite the intentional indoctrination, students were able to flip the narrative, using the education for their own agency.
• ⛪ Many students later joined the First Baptist Church Williamsburg, one of the oldest Black churches in the country, contributing to their success and many becoming teachers.
• 🗣️ The school's opening as a museum is seen as a step towards healing and fostering deeper conversations about navigating oppression and recognizing humanity.
• 🌍 Dr. Cassandra Newbie Alexander hopes the museum will be part of a narrative that society needs to embrace, stating, "to lie about your past is to deny your future."