Literal and metaphorical excavations at Sweet Briar College reveal how African American labor enabled the transformation of Sweet Briar Plantation into a private women’s college in 1906. This volume tells the story of the invisible founders of a college founded by and for white women. Despite being built and maintained by African American families, the college did not integrate its student body for sixty years after it opened. In the process, Invisible Founders challenges our ideas of what a college “founder” is, restoring African American narratives to their deserved and central place in the story of a single institution — one that serves as a microcosm of the American South.

Literal and metaphorical excavations at Sweet Briar College reveal how African American labor enabled the transformation of Sweet Briar Plantation into a private women’s college in 1906. This volume tells the story of the invisible founders of a college founded by and for white women. Despite being built and maintained by African American families, the college did not integrate its student body for sixty years after it opened. In the process, Invisible Founders challenges our ideas of what a college “founder” is, restoring African American narratives to their deserved and central place in the story of a single institution — one that serves as a microcosm of the American South.

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Invisible Workers
Chapter 2. Family Origins, 1685–1810
Chapter 3. Virginian Slavery, 1811–1830
Chapter 4. Survival Strategies, 1831–1857
Chapter 5. Families Divided, 1858–1865
Chapter 6. Freedom Communities, 1866–1883
Chapter 7. Mourning the Dead, 1884–1900
Chapter 8. Forgotten Founders, 1901–2001
Chapter 9. Commemorating Founders

Bibliography
Index