When revolution – and war – came to William & Mary

Robyn Schroeder, assistant director of the National Institute of American History & Democracy, poses with the Desandroüins map, one of four maps of Revolutionary Era Williamsburg made by French volunteers during 1781-82. The maps are part of the Rochambeau collection at the Library of Congress.

In the hit musical "Hamilton," America's founders are transformed from marble statues into college students with a passion for radical change. On the eve of the American Revolution, those scenes unfold around places like Princeton and Columbia. But in Williamsburg, another institution was integral to shaping America's future revolutionaries: William & Mary.

When the 13 colonies declared independence, 250 years ago this summer, there were only nine colleges and universities in America, including William & Mary, the alma mater of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and numerous other leaders who helped shape the new nation.

As Jefferson's Declaration of Independence was being read aloud across the northeast colonies in July 1776, students in Williamsburg increasingly found themselves wrestling with questions about ethics and natural rights, according to Robyn Schroeder, assistant director of the National Institute of American History & Democracy and a William & Mary faculty affiliate.

Students in honor societies like Phi Beta Kappa, founded at William & Mary in 1776, were discussing the ideas that would shape the new world. "We know students were frequenting the taverns, which were places where mail and news arrived and debate occurred at every level of society," Shroeder said.

Jefferson arrived at William & Mary in 1760 as a 16-year-old. In one of his earliest surviving letters, he wrote of his eagerness to leave home, meet new people and study seriously.

By 1776, William & Mary was far more than a place of study.

"The college was intertwined with the Revolution in ways people often don't realize," Schroeder said.

Military activity surrounded the campus. Beginning in 1775, thousands of soldiers trained at the College Camp, a military encampment that operated "roughly where the West Woods dorms and Kaplan Arena now are," said Schroeder.

On the eve of war, Williamsburg itself was a capital city experiencing a civic earthquake, shifting from a colonial outpost known for its college to a town adopting wartime footing. Allegiances were deeply divided, especially among the faculty, many of whom remained loyal to England.

The year-round population was just under 2,000 residents, roughly half of whom were enslaved. Promises were made and mostly not kept.

"Some enslaved people believed they had a higher chance of getting their freedom if they stayed loyal to England," said Sophie Hatfield '26, one of Schroeder's students who helped with research. "The landed people mostly wanted independence because of the taxation issues. The faculty was divided because the college was still under the control of the English bishop. A lot of things you still had to get permission from England to do."

But the students? "There was an outspoken group and they were definitely revolutionaries," Hatfield said.

Revolution comes to the Wren

The Revolution arrived directly on campus during the winter of 1776, when the Fourth Virginia Revolutionary Convention met in the Wren Building, a location likely chosen by Jefferson, then a delegate to the convention, because he knew the nearby College Camp would be able to defend them from attack, Schroeder said.

One student militia had formed in the years leading up to the war and another emerged in 1777. At one point, Virginia Gov. Patrick Henry signed orders making William & Mary's president, Bishop James Madison (not to be confused with the future president), captain of the student company.

Still, daily student life continued. Young men attended classes, studied classical texts and, like students today, occasionally broke the rules.

In fact, much of what historians know about student life comes from disciplinary records.

"Most of the records we have of particular stories of student life in this era were recorded because students were breaking the rules," Schroeder said. "No one writes down, 'Students had another typical day.'"

Hatfield's research provides rare glimpses into the personalities of students living through revolutionary times. The records suggest that despite the extraordinary events unfolding around them, students often behaved in familiar ways.

"Even back then, they managed to get into food fights," Hatfield said. There were no dining halls or dorms. Students lived and went to class in the Wren. Its kitchen was in the basement.

Confusing incident at Confusion Corner

As the war intensified, the campus became increasingly militarized. Defensive works may have been constructed around the College Yard when invasion fears grew in 1780 and 1781. In April 1781, gunfire was exchanged near what is now known as Confusion Corner (the intersection of Richmond and Jamestown roads) between forces under the command of notorious traitor Benedict Arnold and local defenders.

"The British account says that college students came running out of a thicket (northwest on the Richmond Road) and shot at them," Schroeder recounted. This version was challenged by records that claimed it was Continental soldiers "who'd heard (falsely) that Benedict Arnold himself was encamped at Williamsburg. A few dozen men were willing to risk their lives to attempt to capture him, so loathed was he at the time."

"I love that this happened at what we now call 'Confusion Corner,'" Schroeder said. "The British thought they were shooting at college students, and the Continental soldiers thought they were going to capture Benedict Arnold. All of them had it precisely wrong. It was then, as now, a dangerous intersection!"

Preparing for victory at Yorktown

Later that year, the university found itself at the center of one of the Revolution's most important campaigns. British Gen. Charles Cornwallis occupied Williamsburg in the summer of 1781 and established headquarters at the President's House. Just months later, French and American forces gathered nearby as they prepared for the Yorktown campaign.

In September, the Marquis de Lafayette's troops stationed themselves near the College Camp site. George Washington and French commander Comte de Rochambeau soon arrived, meeting Lafayette amid growing confidence that victory was near.

Following the siege of Yorktown, French troops occupied parts of campus for nearly a year. The Wren Building served as a hospital. More than a dozen French soldiers died there. For much of that period, French troops, surgeons, a handful of faculty members and several enslaved people were among the only residents on campus.

The contrast between classroom life and revolutionary upheaval reflects a larger truth about America's founding generation, Schroeder said. Most battles were fought by young men with little formal education. Yet college graduates would come to dominate the political life of the new republic.

As revolution transformed Virginia and the fledgling nation, William & Mary became a crossroads where education, politics and war converged and where, like now, the future leaders of a new nation learned how to think before they learned how to govern.

Susan Corbett, Communications Specialist

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