by Paul Van Perniss
The 2024 EAIA Meeting is April 24th thru April 27th 2024!
It’s not too soon to make your hotel reservations here. You can also contact the hotel directly at (855) 235-1675. If you do call, make sure you tell them you’re making a reservation for the EAIA meeting.
In 2020, members of Colonial Williamsburg’s Grainger Department of Architectural Preservation and Research were studying a building on the campus of The College of William and Mary. The building housed the Department of Military Science and researchers felt that within the structure of this remodeled building there might be an original 18th century building. Speculation was that this building might once have housed the Bray School. With lots of sleuthing and confirmatory dendrochronology (studying tree rings to determine when the tree was cut) the building was indeed determined to contain the original 18th century Bray School building. These research findings make this building the 89th original structure in Colonial Williamsburg. It turns out that this building was home to one of the earliest schools in America dedicated to the education of Black children.
The Bray School took its name from the Reverend Thomas Bray, a British Anglican clergyman who started the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. After his death in 1730, an organization called the Associates of Dr. Bray committed to take on the mission of educating Black children in the American colonies. Benjamin Franklin, who was a member of this group, suggested Williamsburg as a good site for a school. Funds were raised, and in 1760, the school was built. For 14 years (1760-1774) the Williamsburg Bray School educated both enslaved and free Black children. Bray School students were taught to read and spell, largely through lessons using the Bible and the Anglican catechism. Girls also learned to sew and knit. In 1760, Williamsburg’s population was somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400, half of whom were of African descent. The children attending the Bray school lived in a society dominated by human slavery. The majority of these children were owned by white men. Teaching some of their slaves to read would increase their usefulness and their value as a human enslaved commodity. While the founders of the Bray school may have been committed to bringing practical education and religious training to enslaved children, they also wanted to ensure that these children were taught to accept their slavery as what the founders saw as a natural part of their existence.
A Williamsburg area widow named Ann Wager taught over 300 students during the life of the school. The few bits of historical information about Ann Wager suggest that she was a competent and well-liked teacher who was committed to the care and education of the children in the school. Ann Wager died in 1774 and her death put an end to the Bray school in Williamsburg. Research into the life of Ann Wager is ongoing.
In 2022, the Department of Architectural Preservation and Research at Colonial Williamsburg worked with a contractor to remove the nineteenth and twentieth century additions. This work was done with extreme care to avoid any damage to the original building. In February of 2023, the Bray School building was moved to a site within the boundaries of Colonial Williamsburg and has been placed on a new foundation. The plan is to restore the building and hopefully open it to the public in the fall of 2024, so that it can help the public better understand and learn the complicated story of race, religion, and education in Williamsburg and in Colonial America.
On Thursday morning, April 25th, at the EAIA Annual Meeting, we’ll spend time learning more about the Bray school, its architecture, history, and the restoration process. It’s just one of the many activities we have planned for our Annual Meeting in Williamsburg. Even if you’ve been to Williamsburg in the past, there are lots of new and exciting things to see in America’s Colonial capitol. Visiting the Bray school is just one small part of EAIA’s Annual Meeting. Come and join us!
The 2024 Early American Industries Association Annual Meeting will take place at Colonial Williamsburg April 24th thru April 27th, 2024.
If you’d like to learn more about the Bray school, go to: www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/research-and-education/architectural-research/williamsburg-bray-school-initiative/
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