368 Legacies of the Brafferton Indian School

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

Earlyrepublic, History, Benfranklin, Society & Culture, Warforindependence, Earlyamericanrepublic, Earlyamericanhistory, Education, Colonialamerica, Americanrevolution, Ushistory, Benjaminfranklin

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2023

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Brafferton Indian School has a long and complicated legacy. Chartered with the College of William & Mary in 1693, the Brafferton Indian School’s purpose was to educate young Indigenous boys in the ways of English religion, language, and culture. The Brafferton performed this work for more than 70 years, between the arrival of its first students in 1702 and when the last documented student left the school in 1778.

This second episode in our 2-episode series about the Brafferton Indian School will focus on the legacy of the Brafferton Indian School and how it and other colonial-era Indian Schools established models for the schools the United States government and religious institutions established during the Indian Boarding School Era.

As one of the architects of these later Boarding Schools, Richard Henry Pratt, stated, the purpose of these boarding schools was to “kill the Indian and save the man.” Pratt meant that the United States government desired to assimilate and fully Americanize Indigenous children so there would be no more Native Americans.

But Indigenous peoples are resilient, and they have resisted American attempts to extinguish their cultures. So we’ll also hear from three tribal citizens in Virginia who are working in different ways to reawaken long-dormant aspects of their Indigenous cultures.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/368

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ben Franklin's world is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
0:04.8	In this episode, was produced with the support of William & Mary and the American Indian
0:09.2	Initiative at Colonial Williamsburg.
0:13.9	Well the Brafferton and I would say early schools like the Indian College at Harvard,
0:20.2	they were the foundation for what would come later.
0:25.0	If we examine the Indian boarding schools of the late 19th and early 20th century,
0:32.9	we can see some of the same policies being put into action.
0:38.6	The way they were taught is similar.
0:41.7	With the purpose or the final goal being that they would be assimilated into mainstream
0:49.0	American society, just like the goal with Brafferton to assimilate these children and
0:55.5	make them over as English subjects.
0:59.8	I think Brafferton is really one of the foundational schools where this policy of educating to
1:07.4	assimilate continues into the 1950s.
1:13.7	The Brafferton Indian School has a long and complicated legacy.
1:17.8	Chartered with the College of William & Mary in 1693, the Brafferton Indian School's
1:22.4	purpose was to educate young indigenous boys in the ways of English religion, language,
1:27.6	and culture.
1:28.8	The Brafferton performed this work for more than 70 years between the arrival of its first
1:33.2	students in 1702 and when the last documented student left the school in 1778.
1:40.0	As we discussed in our last episode, episode 367, the Brafferton Indian School was not
1:45.5	the first Indian school the English established.
1:48.4	The records of the legislature in Jamestown, Virginia reflected the English government in
	...

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