Between 1760 and 1774, the Williamsburg Bray School students walked to school every day except Sunday. They arrived at 6 o’clock in the morning in the warmer months and 7 o’clock in winter.

Ann Wager, the school’s only teacher, taught reading, religion, and (to the girls) needlework. As part of this religious education, students would encounter the “Parts of the Holy Scriptures” that taught them “to be faithful & obedient to their Masters” and “diligent in their Business.” The Bray School sought to mold Black children into obedient, productive workers. But many of the students who attended the Bray School had other ideas.

In the second to last of this episode series, Colonial Williamsburg’s Katie McKinney and Nicole Brown share what students were taught at the Williamsburg Bray School, one of the earliest institutions dedicated to Black education in North America. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4caexCR