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The Brafferton Project
'The Brafferton' is one of the oldest buildings on the campus of William and Mary. It was built to house a charitable arm of the College, a school for Indian boys, with the aim of returning them to their native tribes as bearers of the Gospel. It stands as a symbol of the tangled relationship between natives and new comers in Virginia's history, and the special role played in that relationship by the College.
The American Indian Resource Center is part of a collaborative group of scholars and native representatives created by William and Mary to explore the meaning and enduring legacy of this history. One of the results is the exhibit Building the Brafferton: The Founding, Funding and Legacy of America’s Indian School, displayed at the Muscarelle Museum of Art from September 9, 2016 through January 8, 2017.
Constructed in 1723, the Brafferton Indian School remains a strong visual symbol on the campus of the College of Â鶹Æƽâ°æ. This is the first exhibition to examine the history of the Brafferton within the wider trans-Atlantic networks of trade, the politics of church and state, and Great Britain’s colonial enterprise in North America. New research on the Brafferton connects Indian students from the Pamunkey, Cherokee, Nottoway, and Wyandot tribes, to wider narratives of our shared past. Historical paintings, engravings, archival documents, and contemporary Native American Art, are assembled to explore the founding, funding, and legacy of one of the nation’s oldest and most esteemed institutions of higher learning.
EXPLORE THE BRAFFERTON PROJECT
