Archaeologists unearth foundation of 1760s schoolhouse for Black children

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WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Archaeologists in Virginia have unearthed the foundation of a building from the 1700s that once supported the nation's oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children, William & Mary announced Wednesday.

The university in Williamsburg said the foundation is nearly completely intact. Archaeologists also uncovered a cellar that is layered with centuries of artifacts, including slate pencil fragments and jewelry.

The schoolhouse was later used as a dormitory, housing some of the first generations of women to attend college in the U.S.

“The roots of our city and university entwine here," said Katherine A. Rowe, William & Mary’s president. "Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic, from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed, up through the early 20th century.”

The Williamsburg Bray School taught hundreds of mostly enslaved students in the 1760s. The school rationalized slavery within a religious framework. And yet becoming literate also gave them more agency, with students sharing what they learned with family members.

The schoolhouse then became a private home before it was incorporated into William & Mary’s growing campus. The building was expanded for various purposes, including student housing, and later moved from its original location.

Historians identified the structure in 2020 through a scientific method that examines tree rings in lumber. It was then moved to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum that includes parts of the original city. The museum has restored the schoolhouse and is working to identify the students' descendants.

Meanwhile, archaeologists with Colonial Williamsburg recently uncovered the foundation and cellar during a major project by William & Mary to renovate a university building, Gates Hall. The school's archaeologists are also involved.

Tom Higgins of William & Mary’s Center for Archaeological Research said the cellar is not lined with bricks and “was probably dug soon after the foundations were laid.”

Researchers have found handmade ceramics often associated with sites of enslavement and Indigenous communities, the university said. There are also items that appear to be more recent, such as a shard of glass depicting Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, war and the arts.

From 1924 to 1930, the building housed Methodist women attending William & Mary.

“We know that the girls at Brown Hall were furnishing their dorms,” said Michele Brumfield, senior researcher at the university's archaeological center. “So maybe they were bringing in things like this.”