WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A building that was used as a schoolhouse for Black children from 1760-1774 is being renovated at Colonial Williamsburg.
In shops throughout the historic area, tradespeople are busy making replicas to go in the Bray School. Items like nails, locks, and even print material that the children would have used are all in production in Colonial Williamsburg.
“Upwards of 300 children attended the school," said program director Nicole Brown. "The curriculum included reading, spelling, sewing and knitting, behavior and the doctrine of the Church of England.”
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Brown portrays the white school teacher who taught the children. She told News 3 the curriculum was pro-slavery.
“That dichotomy of this institution as a site of slavery, and this institution as a site of hope, is a very complicated and a very messy one,” said Brown.
The school was the first of its kind in Virginia. Both free and enslaved Black children were students; Janice Canaday is a descendant.
“It didn’t matter whether you were free, as long as you were a person of color that’s the thing that was going to dictate where you’re going to be, and someone who wasn’t a person of color was going to tell you how far you can go,” said Canaday.
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Construction is still underway, with a team hard at work to encapsulate the history of the school, and what that story conveys today.
“We now know more about Black education than we’ve ever known here at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation," said Amanda Geller, curator of historic interiors. "We know how vital this project is to our mission, which is to preserve the past.”
The schoolhouse is set to open to the public in the fall.
