Bray School

Established by The Associates of Dr. Bray, an England-based Anglican charity, at the suggestion of Ben Franklin, the Bray School opened in 1760 as a school for both free and enslaved Black children. Over the next 14 years the school’s sole teacher, Ann Wager, taught hundreds of students between the ages of 3 and 10 in subjects like reading and—for girls—sewing.

It was an Anglican-based curriculum that justified slavery (according to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, “The Bray School’s deeply flawed purpose was to convince enslaved students to accept their circumstances as divinely ordained”) while also teaching its students basic literacy.

In 1774 the school closed its doors, standing right on the College of William & Mary campus for over 200 years. Then in 2020, a team of architectural preservationists rediscovered its history. A year later, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation partnered with William & Mary to relocate the structure a half-mile to the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area, and restore it while retaining much of its original material—including door frames and floor boards. It’s located right alongside the newly discovered brick foundations of the First Baptist Church, one of the oldest continuous congregations organized by Black Americans.

The building’s move occurred on February 10, 2023, when it became the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s 89th original structure, alongside others like the Governor’s Palace and the Capitol. A Virginia state historical marker commemorates the Bray School’s original site near the corner of Prince George and North Boundary streets, while the reconstructed Bray School is part of a larger initiative by both the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and William & Mary—one that includes an open dialogue on the “often troubled legacy of race, religion, and education in Williamsburg and America.”