Opening of the Williamsburg Bray School

From 1760 to 1774, teacher Ann Wager likely taught hundreds of students at the Williamsburg Bray School, one of the earliest institutions dedicated to Black education in North America. Students learned the tenets of the Anglican Church and subjects, including reading, and for girls, sewing. The Bray School’s deeply flawed purpose was to convince enslaved students to accept their circumstances as divinely ordained. Following extensive renovations, the Williamsburg Bray School is now open and stands in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area as the Foundation’s 89th original structure.