Hidden Histories of the Founding Era

Every year, thousands of tourists and students travel to Williamsburg, Virginia, to explore and experience the nation’s founding through the distinctive, eighteenth-century built environment. At William & Mary, the second oldest university in North America, and in richly historic Williamsburg, landmark sites preserve the history of the U.S. founding and invite visitors to imagine the Virginians who figured so prominently in traditional accounts of the Revolution and creation of the republic. Yet the same buildings that help us understand familiar elites can also help us to discover hidden histories, revealing a more diverse, inclusive, and compelling history of the nation’s founding era. “Hidden Histories of the Founding Era” introduces teacher-participants to four sites that encompass the full complexity of the founding era.