Lucia Reyes ’29 is a prospective psychology major and creative writing minor. She enjoys writing, reading, playing The Sims and listening to the rock and indie music. On campus, she is involved in Best Buddies, Cheese Club and Oriental Tea Club. Contact her at lareyes@wm.edu.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s own
Next to the historic Sir Christopher Wren Building sits another building built just 28 years later. Like the Wren Building, it once functioned as a home and a classroom for students. This structure is the Brafferton Building, and it housed Indigenous students from 1723 until the American Revolutionary War.
Now, this building is home to the offices of the College of William and Mary’s provost and president. The Brafferton Building’s administrative function closes off its interesting and important history from the public. There are many buildings that could serve as administrative offices, but there is only one Brafferton. To allow the community to engage with the Brafferton Building’s history, the College should convert the space into a historical exhibit.
The Brafferton’s story began with an English scientist named Robert Boyle. In his will, he dedicated money to charitable religious purposes. The executors of his estate decided to fund missionary activity in British North America, and leaders of Colonial Virginia used this funding to open the Brafferton School. The school was intended to teach Indigenous youth English customs and religion. The founders of the school hoped that its students would convert their people to Christianity. Indigenous leaders were initially hesitant to send their children to the new English school, so the first students of the Brafferton School were purchased as enslaved people. Eventually, through economic coercion and military intimidation, various Indigenous groups began sending boys to the school. These students were housed and educated in the Wren Building until the Brafferton Building was finished in 1723.
The legacy of the Brafferton School is complex. According to Professor Hugh Jones, the Indigenous students frequently died while enrolled, and the school had a fundamentally missionary and exploitative purpose. However, several Brafferton students went on to use their English education to be interpreters and diplomats between the English and their Indigenous groups.
This is only a short summary of the history of the Brafferton, but it demonstrates the fascinating information available about the building and its importance to the early history of the College. There are a myriad of ways that the College could highlight this history, but closing off the Brafferton Building as administrative offices is not one of them.
The Brafferton Building would not even necessarily need to be completely converted into a museum. The Wren Building serves as both a functional classroom building and a historical exhibit. Even if the College just converted one or two rooms of the Brafferton Building into historical displays, the campus community and the public could be powerfully connected with the Brafferton, and, by extension, the history of Indigenous communities in Virginia.
The College professes its commitment to connecting with the Indigenous community. It has worked with local Indigenous groups to create a land acknowledgement, conducted extensive research about Indigenous issues, created a Native Studies Minor and hosted events celebrating Indigenous culture. Highlighting the history of the Brafferton would be a logical and impactful next step in the college’s outreach.
The College’s historic campus webpage reads, “Along with The Brafferton and the President’s House, the Wren Building is the soul of William & Mary’s colonial campus.”
However, the College’s treatment of the Wren Building and the Brafferton Building is starkly different, even though they both have immense historical significance. The Wren Building is the jewel of the College’s campus. It is the center of Opening Convocation, the Yule Log tradition, the Candlelight Ceremony and Commencement. It is featured on the campus landmarks webpage, where online visitors can virtually tour it. The first two floors of the Wren Building are open to visitors, and guided tours are available. By contrast, the Brafferton Building is closed to visitors and not centered on the college’s website or in campus traditions. There is some information about the Brafferton on the College’s website, but it is limited. The Colonial Williamsburg website has a detailed page about the Brafferton, but notes that it cannot be visited.
The Colonial Williamsburg website reads, “While you cannot visit it [the Brafferton] in the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area, it is one of the town’s most fascinating historic sites.”
This highlights the wasted potential of the Brafferton Building. It could be an important part of tourists’, students’ and locals’ exploration of Williamsburg, but the building’s administrative function makes this impossible.
Additionally, the Colonial Williamsburg website shows images of Brafferton artifacts that have been discovered, and states that they are part of the College’s collections. These artifacts could be showcased in a Brafferton showroom or exhibit, rather than being hidden away.
It is certainly within the College’s capabilities to make the Brafferton Building a historic site. The College worked with Colonial Williamsburg to restore the Bray School, a school primarily for enslaved Africans, and relocate it from the College’s campus to Colonial Williamsburg. Like the Brafferton School, the Bray School was founded by a missionary organization. Its primary purpose was to convince its enslaved students to accept their positions in life.
The College’s webpage about the Bray School reads, “As a joint venture of William & Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Williamsburg Bray School Initiative will use the Bray School as a focal point for research, scholarship, and dialogue regarding the interconnected, often troubled, legacy of race, religion, and education in Williamsburg and America.”
If the College did not prevent visitors from accessing the history of the Brafferton School, it could have a similar role as the Bray School. The Brafferton Building’s current administrative function is fundamentally preventative. It keeps students, locals and visitors to Colonial Williamsburg in the dark about an essential part of Williamsburg’s historic relations with Indigenous peoples. This is illogical because the College has worked to connect with the Indigenous community in other ways, collaborated with Colonial Williamsburg to make the Bray School a historic site and repeatedly emphasizes the Wren Building’s history.
