Inside a 1760 schoolhouse for Black children is a complicated history of slavery and resilience

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — 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.

The school rationalized slavery within a religious framework and encouraged children to accept their fates as God’s plan. And yet, becoming literate also gave them more agency. The students went on to share what they learned with family members and others who were enslaved.

“We don’t shy away from the fact that this was a pro-slavery school,” said Maureen Elgersman Lee, director of William & Mary’s Bray School Lab, a partnership between the university and museum.

But she said the school takes on a different meaning in the 21st century.

“It’s a story of resilience and resistance," Lee said. "And I put the resilience of the Bray School on a continuum that brings us to today."

To underscore the point, the lab has been seeking descendants of the students, with some success.

They include Janice Canaday, 67, who also is the museum's African American community engagement manager. Her lineage traces back to the students Elisha and Mary Jones.

“It grounds you,” said Canaday, who grew up feeling little connection to history. “That’s where your power is. And those are the things that give you strength — to know what your family has come through.”

The Bray School was established in Williamsburg and other colonial cities at the recommendation of founding father Benjamin Franklin. He was a member of a London-based Anglican charity that was named after Thomas Bray, an English clergyman and philanthropist.

The Bray School was exceptional for its time. Although Virginia waited until the 1800s to impose anti-literacy laws, white leaders across much of Colonial America forbid educating enslaved people, fearing literacy would encourage them to seek freedom.

The white teacher at the Williamsburg school, a widow named Ann Wager, taught an estimated 300 to 400 students, whose ages ranged from 3 to 10. The school closed with her death in 1774.

The schoolhouse became a private home before it was incorporated into William & Mary’s growing campus. The building was moved and expanded for various purposes, including student housing.

Historians identified the structure in 2020 through a scientific method that examines tree rings in lumber. Last year, it was transported to Colonial Williamsburg, which includes parts of the original city.

The museum and university have focused on restoring the schoolhouse, researching its curriculum and finding descendants of former students.

The lab has been able to link some people to the Jones and Ashby families, two free Black households that had students in the school, said Elizabeth Drembus, the lab's genealogist.

But the effort has faced steep challenges: Most enslaved people were stripped of their identities and separated from their families, so there are limited records. And only three years of school rosters have survived.

Drembus is talking to people in the region about their family histories and working backward. She also is sifting through 18th-century property records, tax documents and enslavers' diaries.

“When you’re talking about researching formerly enslaved people, records were kept very differently because they weren't considered people,” Drembus said.

Researching the curriculum has been easier. The English charity catalogued the books it sent to the schools, said Katie McKinney, an associate curator of maps and prints at the museum.

Materials include a small spelling primer, a copy of which was located in Germany, that begins with the alphabet and moves on to syllables, such as “Beg leg meg peg."

Students also received a more sophisticated speller, bound in sheepskin, as well as the Book of Common Prayer and other Christian texts.

Meanwhile, the schoolhouse has been mostly restored. About 75% of the original floor has survived, allowing visitors to walk where the children and teacher placed their feet.

Canaday, whose familial roots include two Bray School students, wondered on a recent visit if any of the children “felt safe in here, whether they felt loved.”

Canaday noted that the teacher, Wager, was the mother of at least two kids.

“Did some of her mothering bleed over into what she showed those children?” Canaday said. “There are moments when we forget to go by the rules and humanity takes over. I wonder how many times that happened in these spaces."

Knob and tube electrical wiring at the Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Katie McKinney, is the Margaret Beck Pritchard Associate curator of Maps and Prints for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Elizabeth Drembus discusses the known family trees of some of the students that attended the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Janice Canaday, Colonial Williamsburg Foundations African American community engagement manager, stands outside near the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

The classroom of the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Matthew Webster, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's executive director of architectural preservation and research, speaks about the Williamsburg Bray School's construction on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Matthew Webster shows an original rail from the classroom of the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Janice Canaday, Colonial Williamsburg Foundations African American community engagement manager, in the classroom of the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Replicas of the books that students would have used at the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Katie McKinney speaks about the curriculum of the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Residue from the original plaster walls of the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Elizabeth Drembus, the genealogist at the Williamsburg Bray School Lab, speaks about her work on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Janice Canaday, Colonial Williamsburg Foundations African American community engagement manager, has traced her ancestors to the Williamsburg Bray School, on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

18th century nails shoved in between hand craved joints in the stairs leading up to the second floor of the Williamsburg Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Katie McKinney, is the Margaret Beck Pritchard Associate curator of Maps and Prints for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

A dog's paw print (left of arrow) is seen in one of the chimney bricks at the Bray School on Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near their records Wednesday as oil prices fall and ease the pressure on households and businesses worldwide.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% below its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 183 points, or 0.4%, as of 12:56 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

Stocks of companies with big fuel bills helped lead the way on hopes that lower oil prices will remove a big drag on their profits. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings climbed 5.7%, and United Airlines rallied 7.3%. Delta Air Lines rose 3.7% and is on track to set an all-time high.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 4.1% to $95.48 after the ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to hold despite the U.S. military launching what it called “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell even more, 4.2%, to $89.69 on hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf for deliveries again.

Stocks have been able to run to records despite the painful inflation and uncertainty caused by high oil prices largely because companies have reported surprisingly strong profits for the start of 2026, and the forecast is for them to continue.

Bath & Body Works rallied 11.2%, and Abercrombie & Fitch climbed 11.8% after both reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That's even as U.S. consumers continue to say they're feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation.

Lululemon Athletica rose 3.6% after reaching a deal with its founder, Chip Wilson, where it will add a former chief marketing officer of ESPN and a former co-CEO of On to its board of directors.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Dick's Sporting Goods, which dropped 4.9% despite delivering a profit for the latest quarter that edged past expectations. Analysts pointed to how much profit it wrung out of each $1 in revenue, which some called a bit weak.

Oil-and-gas stocks also sank, hurt by the dropping prices for crude. Exxon Mobil fell 1.4%, and Chevron slipped 0.8%. Halliburton dropped 3% to bring its gain for the year so far back toward 40%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after falling oil prices took pressure off inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.48% from 4.50% late Tuesday and from 4.67% roughly a week ago.

It’s a respite following recent gains for yields in bond markets worldwide, which threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. South Korea's Kospi was one of the world's best performers and jumped 2.3% after SK Hynix, which is a big beneficiary of the artificial-intelligence boom, soared 9.3%.

A day before, Micron Technology surged to become the latest Big Tech company to be worth more than $1 trillion on AI excitement. Its stock has more than tripled already in 2026, and analysts at UBS said Tuesday it could soar even more because of how fundamentally AI has improved demand for computer memory.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Trader Edward Curran, left, and specialist Meric Greenbaum, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 25, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)