The African Free School was a school for children of
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and
free people of color
In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
in New York City. It was founded by members of the
New York Manumission Society, including
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charle ...
and
John Jay
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...
, on November 2, 1787. Many of its alumni became leaders in the African-American community in New York.
History
The school was founded by the
New York Manumission Society, an organization that advocated the full
abolition
Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to:
*Abolitionism, abolition of slavery
* Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment
*Abolition of monarchy
*Abolition of nuclear weapons
*Abolit ...
of African slavery. In 1785 the group gained passage of a New York state law prohibiting the sale of slaves who were imported into the state. This preceded the national law prohibiting the slave trade, which went into effect in 1808. The New York law also eased restrictions on the
manumission
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...
of enslaved Africans. The society's members were all white, male, wealthy, and influential.
["African Free School"](_blank)
New-York Historical Society The society was founded by
John Jay
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...
, a statesman and abolitionist, and included
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charle ...
among its members.
Established in 1794, the first school was a
one-room school house that held about 40 students.
Originally the Manumission Society hired white teachers, but it eventually employed black teachers as well. It was an early form of "charity schooling," supported by donations for the city's poorest residents. In 1809 the school's trustees hired Charles C. Andrews, an
English immigrant, to teach at the school. Andrews used the methods of
Joseph Lancaster, a British school reformer whose system employed student assistants or "
monitors
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West ...
," permitting a single teacher to conduct classes as large as several hundred. By all accounts, Andrews was passionately committed to the idea that his black students were just as bright as whites, if not even smarter. Under his leadership the institution grew significantly, moving to a new building on William St in 1815. Five years later an even bigger facility was opened on Mulberry St, near Grand. By then enrollment was approaching 700, and the schools were gaining a wide reputation for success. Andrews published a book in 1821 celebrating the schools' accomplishments, and they became a frequent stopping point for visitors to the city.
After opening yet another school, with enrollment surpassing a thousand children, a crisis unfolded in the early 1830s. Andrews publicly advocated the idea that American blacks should set up a colony in Africa, as was being done in Liberia by the American Colonization Society. This was one of the period's most controversial racial issues, as by this time most American blacks were native born and their goal was to achieve equal political rights in the United States. Black students boycotted the schools, leading to Andrews' dismissal in 1832. The administration hired black teachers to replace whites in each of the city's African Free Schools. By 1835, when the schools ended their run as privately supported institutions, the African Free School had seven buildings in different neighborhoods, and it had educated thousands of girls and boys. At that time the African Free Schools and their facilities were integrated into the public school system. This was several years after New York freed the last adult slaves under its gradual abolition law.
The state had passed a
gradual emancipation law in 1799: it provided that children of enslaved mothers would be born free, but were required to have lengthy periods as indentured servants, to 28 years of age for men and 25 for women, before being legally and socially free. Gradually, existing adult slaves were freed, until the last were freed in 1827.
Notable alumni
* Dr.
James McCune Smith
James McCune Smith (April 18, 1813 – November 17, 1865) was an American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author who was born in Manhattan. He was the first African American to hold a medical degree from the University of Glasgow in Sco ...
, the first African American to earn a university medical degree, physician, writer and abolitionist.
*
Ira Aldridge
Ira Frederick Aldridge (July 24, 1807 – August 7, 1867) was an American-born British actor, playwright, and theatre manager, known for his portrayal of Shakespearean characters. James Hewlett and Aldridge are regarded as the first Black Amer ...
, actor and abolitionist activist
*
Alexander Crummell
Alexander Crummell (March 3, 1819 – September 10, 1898) was a pioneering African-American minister, academic and African nationalist. Ordained as an Episcopal priest in the United States, Crummell went to England in the late 1840s to raise money ...
, minister and early black nationalist
*
George T. Downing, caterer and abolitionist
*
Henry Highland Garnet
Henry Highland Garnet (December 23, 1815 – February 13, 1882) was an African-American abolitionist, minister, educator and orator. Having escaped as a child from slavery in Maryland with his family, he grew up in New York City. He was educat ...
, minister and abolitionist
*
Patrick H. Reason, engraver
*
Charles Lewis Reason, first African-American college professor, abolitionist
*
Samuel Ringgold Ward
Samuel Ringgold Ward (October 17, 1817 – ) was an African American who escaped enslavement to become an abolitionist, newspaper editor, labor leader, and Congregational church minister.
He was author of the influential book ''Autobiograph ...
,
a cousin of Garnet
See also
*
New York Manumission Society
*
African Free School alumni
*
James McCune Smith
James McCune Smith (April 18, 1813 – November 17, 1865) was an American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author who was born in Manhattan. He was the first African American to hold a medical degree from the University of Glasgow in Sco ...
*
Peter Williams Jr.
Peter Williams Jr. (1786–1840) was an African-American Episcopal priest, the second ordained in the United States and the first to serve in New York City. He was an abolitionist who also supported free black emigration to Haiti, the black republ ...
*
Patrick H. Reason
*
Abiel Smith School
Abiel Smith School, founded in 1835, is a school located at 46 Joy Street in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, adjacent to the African Meeting House. It is named for Abiel Smith, a white philanthropist who left money (an estimated $4,000) in ...
*
John Teasman
References
Further reading
* John L. Rury, "The New York African Free School, 1827-1836: Community Conflict over Community Control of Black Education," ''Phylon'', Vol. 44, No. 3 (1983) pp. 187–197.
*
Sources
*
*
*
External links
African Free School at
New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...
Finding Aid for African Free School Records New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...
*
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Historically black schools
History of New York City
Historically segregated African-American schools in New York (state)
1787 establishments in New York (state)
Defunct schools in New York City
African-American history in New York City
Antebellum educational institutions that admitted African Americans
Educational institutions established in 1787
Private elementary schools in Manhattan
1835 disestablishments in New York (state)
Underground Railroad in New York (state)