WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A Virginia museum has nearly finished restoring the nation's oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children, where hundreds of mostly enslaved students learned to read through a curriculum that justified slavery.
The museum, Colonial Williamsburg, also has identified more than 80 children who lined its pinewood benches in the 1760s.
They include Aberdeen, 5, who was enslaved by a saddle and harness maker. Bristol and George, 7 and 8, were owned by a doctor. Phoebe, 3, was the property of local tavern keepers.
Another student, Isaac Bee, later emancipated himself. In newspaper ads seeking his capture, his enslaver warned Bee ''can read.''
The museum dedicated the Williamsburg Bray School at a large ceremony on Friday, with plans to open it for public tours this spring. Colonial Williamsburg tells the story of Virginia's colonial capital through interpreters and hundreds of restored buildings.
Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch told the crowd outside the refurbished school that it was one of the most important historic moments of the last decade.
''History is an amazing mirror,'' Bunch added. ''It's a mirror that challenges us and reminds us that, despite what we've achieved, despite all our ideals, America still is a work in progress. But oh, what an amazing work it is."
The Cape Cod-style home was built in 1760 and still contains much of its original wood and brick. It will anchor a complicated story about race and education, but also resistance, before the American Revolution.