3 - Life in New York City

Summary

Daniel Aldridge had wanted his son Ira to follow in his footsteps and become a preacher. To this end he enrolled him in one of the two African Free Schools that had been established in New York City by the Manumission Society “for the special purpose of opening the avenues to a gratuitous education to the descendants of an injured race, who have a strong claim on the humanity and justice of our State.” A more explicit purpose was to educate “young men of colour, to be employed as teachers and preachers among the people of colour in these States [New York and New Jersey] and elsewhere.” The first of these institutions had been opened in November 1787 with a single schoolmaster and twelve pupils. In 1791 a female teacher was employed to instruct girls in needlework. The school did not have a permanent building until one was constructed on Cliff Street in 1796. By then 122 pupils were enrolled—63 males and 59 females, with an average attendance of about 80. The curriculum consisted of reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, “with sewing, &c, in the girls’ school.” After this school burned down in 1814, a replacement measuring thirty by sixty feet, sufficient space for about two hundred students, was built at 245 William Street the following year. This later became known as African Free School No. 1. Within a few months of opening, “the room became so crowded with pupils that it was found necessary to engage a separate room, next to the school, to accommodate such of the females as were to be taught sewing.” Apparently there was a great demand in the black community for basic elementary education, and many more of their youngsters were sent to school. As early as 1787 even the children of slaves were being admitted if they had permission from their masters. By 1817 there were 308 students of both sexes enrolled, ranging in age from six to fifteen, and it was estimated that nearly three thousand children had received some education at the African Free School since its founding thirty years earlier.