TONIA MERIDETH: These children were some of the first scholars in the new world.

That's an American story that should be shared and taught.

I grew up believing that my ancestors only picked cotton on a plantation.

So to find out that there was a school in the 18th century before this country was a nation, there were Black children being educated and receiving what we would consider a private education.

To know that completely changed the trajectory of my life.

I'm the oral historian for the Bray School Lab.

I am creating and documenting the reciting of the Bray School and elevating the voices of the descendant community.

Education to an individual means agency.

And that's what these children had.

Despite the fact that they were being indoctrinated in the Church of England and indoctrinated that slavery was their natural station in life, they took that education and went back to their communities to help out and educate their families.

And so, to learn this information, the impact that it had on me is the impact that I want it to have on others.

For many people in the community, they don't know that they're descendants.

We are only in the record books when it pertains to money because we were property.

So that can be something that is hard to sit with.

Just talking about the fact that I'm descended from those families, what that infers is I'm descended from them because an enslaver had an ancestor of mine through the practice of rape that existed inside the institution of slavery.

JOHNETTE GORDON-WEAVER: There are not a lot of written records concerning us, whether enslave or free, and those that are you oftentimes have been destroyed because it wasn't important because they were just Black people.

There were some free families that were, had students at the Bray School, and one of those names is my mother's maiden name.

There was a Hunley child who possibly could have attended the Bray School.

I'm a very fortunate person in that I can trace my roots pretty much back to 1689 or so.

And we know from whom the mother, who was white, we know what her name was, ergo we could trace from her, you know, up till the present because she had children who were not enslaved.

They were people and there were people who were often forgotten.

And the story of, not just Williamsburg, but in America as a whole, and it's my opportunity to let you know that they lived.

And I think African Americans, particularly young people, would gain so much and give so much to this country if they actually knew who they were and where they come from.

ELIZABETH DREMBUS My role as a genealogist is to trace the descendant lines of the students that attended the school, that is going to include researching them in all kinds of records and see if we can move forward from the 1760s to the present day with finding their descendants and really telling their story and also kind of maybe shedding some light on their lived experiences.

The school itself in Williamsburg was in existence from 1760 until 1774.

So it's a 14-year existence.

We have attendance lists from only three of those 14 years.

So from those lists, we have 80 some names.

As a genealogist, normally you would work from the present going backwards.

Start with what you know, then talk to your parents, then talk to your grandparents, but in this case, we're doing a little bit of both.

We're doing a little bit of that with the descendant community, and they've been terrific and engaging.

And then we're also starting with the students and the student lists and moving forward in time.

I haven't hit a situation where there hasn't been records.

It's just finding those names in those records.

So, for example, if I'm talking about someone in the Peyton Randolph household, we are going to be looking at the wills and the inventories in the estate accounts to find the list, the names of the kids.

JANICE CANADAY: But who were those children?

You have the names on the list, but there are no pictures.

So I want to know what those children looked like.

Who were those children to the folks that brought them to the school?

Were they their children?

Were the children of adult males and women on the property that they owned?

Lots of things that I think about that and question about that.

I think that there's a deeper story here.

(sheep bleating) I am supervisor of Peyton Randolph property.

I have a great, great grandmother, Sally, who lived to be 93 years old.

(indistinct) Do I have her genes inside of me?

How many children did she have?

You're talking about people who've had the majority of everything that spices up life stripped away from them.

Whether it's your religion, your ability to write, your speech, your love of color, styling your hair, all those sorts of things.

And all those things are part of who you are.

And so for me, I think about how I love to cook, my passion for music, my passion for reading, storytelling, and say, okay, where'd that come from?

I'm really lack a quilt or a puzzle with many, many pieces.

And every piece is important.

But I think because the Bray School is here and it's now brought to the forefront, not in the shadows, it will challenge people to broaden their perspective and their focus and what they once thought.

But in order to tell that whole story, you've got to be open-minded and willing to understand that it wasn't just one set of people who were doing, it was everybody.