Slave quarters found at William & Mary

Archaeologists working at the College of William & Mary, the nation’s second-oldest college, have found the foundations of a structure that may have housed slaves who cooked and cleaned for students and faculty of the school.

The brick remnants sit next to the Wren Building, at the core of the historic campus. Scholars believe that they are the traces of an outbuilding — possibly sleeping quarters, a kitchen or a laundry — built in the 18th century for slaves who lived and worked at the college, according to the Washington Post.

The find is “a little bit of a miracle” for William & Mary and for Williamsburg, once Virginia’s Colonial capital, a historic district that has been nearly picked clean by archaeologists and anthropologists, said Louise Kale, executive director of the school’s Historic Campus.

“One of the things that this reminds us is there is still wonderful information out there that is being given up by the ground,” she told the Post.