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.
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The school was founded by the New York Manumission Society, an organization that advocated the full abolition of African slavery. 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 be passed 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.
The school graduated some significant alumni, most notably Dr. James McCune Smith, a vocal abolitionist and the first African American to earn a medical degree. [3] Other important alumni included actor Ira Aldridge; seafarer and abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet; minister and early Black nationalist Alexander Crummell[4]; and engraver Patrick H. Reason[5].