Blair Hall is the 3 story building on James Blair Drive. The building is home to William & Mary's Lyon G. Gardiner history department. The building was built in 1935 and was originally named Marshall-Wythe Hall. Marshall-Wythe hall was home to William and Mary's Government department. It wasn't until 1968 during the relocation of the Law School that the building was renamed to James Blair Hall in honor of the founder of the college.

For context on James Blair, he is highly regarded within the William & Mary community as the founder of the college. With portraits & statues, William & Mary has regarded Blair with such high esteem. What the college has continued to hide, was his role in building the college off the backs of enslaved people in order to educate whites and 'Cihristianize' Native Americans.

Born between 1655 and 1656, Blair boarded a ship for Jamaica, and from Jamaica he would sail to the New World, establishing residence in Virginia. Here he pursued his dream for a college to educate Virginians & Marylanders while also Christianizing Native Americans.

Blair persisted in securing a royal charter and endowment to form the college. The college easily became a prominent institution, with well-known names associated with it such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Marshall, etc.

Blair's influence within Virginia was incredibly high, and spoke to his reputation within the William & Mary community. Serving the Williamsburg community as Parish of Henrico, Bishop's Commissary, and Twelve man council, an upper house of Virginia's Assembly.

Conard, Arlyn M. The Christianization Of Indians In Colonial Virginia, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, Ann Arbor, 1979. ProQuest, https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.wm.edu/dissertations-theses/christianization-indians-colonial-virginia/docview/302950810/se-2?accountid=15053.

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “James Blair.” Encyclopedia Britannica, April 27,2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Blair

Meyers, Terry L. "Slavery at the College of William and Mary." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 26 Jul. 2019. Web. https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Slavery_at_the_College_of_William_and_Mary

Meyers, Terry L. “A First Look at the Worst: Slavery and Race Relations at the College of William and Mary.” 16 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 1141 (2008), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol16/iss4/8

Meyers, Terry L. "Benjamin Franklin, the College of William and Mary, and the Williamsburg Bray School." Anglican and Episcopal History, vol. 79, no. 4, 2010, pp. 368-393. ProQuest, https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.wm.edu/scholarly-journals/benjamin-franklin-college-william-mary/docview/822045302/se-2?accountid=15053.

Oast, Jennifer B. Forgotten Masters: Institutional Slavery in Virginia, 1680–1860, The College of William and Mary, Ann Arbor, 2008. ProQuest, https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.wm.edu/dissertations-theses/forgotten-masters-institutional-slavery-virginia/docview/304448239/se-2?accountid=15053.

Rouse, Parke. “James Blair Of Virginia.” Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, vol. 43, no. 2, 1974, pp. 189–193. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42973418. Accessed 27 Dec. 2020.

Rowe, Linda. "Gowan Pamphlet: Baptist Preacher in Slavery and Freedom." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 120, no. 1, 2012, pp. 3-31. ProQuest, https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/gowan-pamphlet-baptist-preacher-slavery-freedom/docview/927126832/se-2?accountid=15053.

Shefveland, Kristalyn M. ‘Wholly Subjected’?: Anglo-Indian Interaction in Colonial Virginia, 1646-1718, The University of Mississippi, Ann Arbor, 2010. ProQuest, https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.wm.edu/dissertations-theses/wholly-subjected-anglo-indian-interaction/docview/858155220/se-2?accountid=15053.

Stanwood, Owen. "Captives and Slaves: Indian Labor, Cultural Conversion, and the Plantation Revolution in Virginia." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 114, no. 4, 2006, pp. 435-463. ProQuest, https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.wm.edu/scholarly-journals/captives-slaves-indian-labor-cultural-conversion/docview/195926607/se-2?accountid=15053.

Van Horne, John C., and James Blair. “The Correspondence of James Blair as Acting Governor of Virginia, 1740-1741.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 84, no. 1, 1976, pp. 19–48. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4248007. Accessed 28 Feb. 2021.