African Free School

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Lithograph of second school, 1922

The African Free School was an institution founded by the New York Manumission Society on November 2, 1787. It was founded to provide education to children of slaves and freemen.

1 History
2 Alumnae
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

The school was founded by the New York Manumission Society, an organization that advocated the full abolition of African slaves. The society's members were all white, male, wealthy, and influential.[[1]] The society was founded by statesman and abolitionist John Jay, and included Alexander Hamilton among its members.

The original school was a one-room school house that held about 40 students.[[2]] By the end of its term as a private institution, it had 7 schools and had educated literally thousands of girls and boys.

The school was founded just nine years after the society helped a state law bepassed in 1785 that prohibited the sale of slaves imported into the state. The law also eased restriction on the manumission of Africans already committed to slavery. In 1835, African Free School was integrated into the public school system.

[edit] Alumnae

The school graduated some significant alumnae, most notably Dr. James McCune Smith. Smith was the first African-American person to earn a medical degree, and widely-believed to be first African-American person in the United States to run a pharmacy. He was also the first African-American to practice medicine in the World.[[3]]

Another notable alum was Ira Aldridge, the "most famous black actor of the nineteenth century" Henry Highland Garnet, a prominent seafarer and abolitionist also graduated from African Free School, though he was born a slave. Alexander Crumwell was another prominent abolitionist, as well as a minister, to graduate from the school.[[4]]