"Re-understanding Students as Members of Communities" Nicole Brown on the Bray School Initiative by National Trust for Historic Preservation

An interview with Nicole Brown the Bray School Lab Assistant at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia for a story on SavingPlaces.org.
https://savingplaces.org/stories/stories-and-structure-the-history-of-black-education-at-the-williamsburg-bray-school

Transcript:
Nicole Brown:
I think for me the continued favorite discovery is finding the family members of students who previously were only identified by their name and the Bray school lists. And there were no other community connections made academically, at least not published.

So here's what I mean by that. There is a very prominent family, actually the family still is here, the Prentice family in Williamsburg in the 18th century. And in 1765, Molly, who was a young girl who was enslaved by William Prentice, sent to the Bray School. Well, if you go back and look at his inventory from that year, he dies a few months later. Molly's not just on the list, so are her siblings Effie and, and her mother, Judith, whose name had not been connected to her previously. The this same thing happened with Fannie. She was enslaved by the College of William & Mary.

Her mother's name is Sharlotte with an S. It's on the Bruton baptismal records. So for me, what inspires me is knowing I can facilitate in any small way, reimagining, re-understanding these students as members of communities, with lives and narratives, both within and outside of school. Right?

And every time that happens, it continuously floors me and I need a minute to kind of process and take a breath. Uh, but I think it's the most important work I'll ever do.