“It began as a single-room schoolhouse with about forty students, the majority of whom were the children of slaves, and by the time it was absorbed into the New York City public school system in 1835, it had educated thousands of children, a number of whom went on to become well known in the United States and Europe.”

The New York African Free School produced a remarkable number of black leaders. Doctor James McCune Smith, internationally known actor Ira Aldridge, radical abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet, and missionary and educator Alexander Crummell, and acclaimed student Serena Baldwin represent just some of the most known among them.

Ira Aldridge

Ira Frederick Aldridge (1807 – 1867) was an American and later British actor and playwright who made his career largely on the London stage and in Europe. Born in New York City, Aldridge became the first African-American actor to establish himself professionally in a foreign country, and he was one of the most celebrated Shakespearean actors of the 19th century.

Aldridge is an alumni from the New York African Free School, where many future leaders of the American abolitionist movement were educated. He started acting first in The African Company in the 1820s, which later became the African Grove Theater 1821, the first African American theater company.

Due to the constant discrimination that black actors, and African Americans had to endure in overall, Aldridge decided to emigrate to Liverpool, England, in 1824.

According to the Smithsonian web site, Aldridge spent the rest of his life touring Great Britain, Europe, Russia, and became a British citizen in 1863. He used his position on the stage to speak out against slavery and advocate for racial equality.

Theater reviews Critical reception:

He left his native New York for England and played Othello at Covent Garden, but wasn’t accepted by the London audiences.The traditional story is that this is because of racism – and some papers, including one national newspaper of the day, wrote appallingly racist reviews – but another view suggests it’s less clear-cut, and that a flu outbreak was responsible for a low turn-out and slave supporters bribed reviewers.

“Baker-kneed and narrow-chested with lips so shaped that it is utterly impossible for him to pronounce English.“

The Times

“Tall and tolerably well proportioned with a weak voice that gabbles apace."

The Drama

"In Othello [Aldridge] delivers the most difficult passages with a degree of correctness that surprises the beholder."

In African-American circles, Aldridge was a legendary figure. Many black actors viewed him as an inspirational model, so when his death was revealed, several amateur groups sought to honor his memory by adopting his name for their companies. Applied for British citizenship (1863). Shortly before his death, he was apparently ready to return to America to perform. It was reported that Aldridge had negotiated a 100-show-tour throughout the post-Civil War United States.

He died in August 1867 while visiting Łódź, Poland.

“True feeling and just expression are not confined to any clime or colour.”

James McCune Smith

Born in 1813, was a graduate of the New York African Free School. It is clear, from the fragments of his schoolwork that survive, that Smith was an exceptionally bright student. Smith was chosen to deliver a speech to General Lafayette on his trip to New York, a remarkable honor. From other samples of his work, we can glean his prodigious talent in both writing and drawing. Perhaps it was his undeniable status as a star student that inspired Charles C. Andrews, the school's white schoolmaster, to cast him in a dialogue performed in 1822. In this skit, Smith plays a good student who reprimands his classmate for persistent tardiness. When Smith learns that his friend's lateness is due to the negligence of his parents, he is indignant and extols the virtues of education and the rules that undergird that education at the New York African Free School. Although we do not know how this skit was received, we might imagine that parents in the audience might have found the exchange offensive. After his graduation, James McCune Smith became the first African American to receive a medical degree. Unable to attend college in the United States because of his race, Smith entered Glasgow University in Scotland and earned three academic degrees, including a doctorate in medicine. When Smith returned to New York, and his intellect and energy made him an instrumental figure in an emerging Black community. A prominent abolitionist, Smith worked with Frederick Douglass to establish the National Council of the Colored People. He also maintained close ties to classmate Henry Highland Garnet, praising his incendiary speech urging slaves to rebel, even when other members of the abolitionist community objected strongly to Garnet's sentiments. Some of Smith's published works include "A Lecture on the Haitian Revolution" (1841) and "The Destiny of the People of Color" (1843), as well as a biographical introduction to Henry Highland Garnet's A Memorial Discourse. He also wrote the introduction to Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). James McCune Smith died on November 17, 1865.

Henry Highland Garnet

Henry Highland Garnet was born enslaved in Maryland in 1815. In 1824, his family received permission to attend a funeral, and capitalized on their opportunity to secure freedom. The Garnets arrived in New York City in 1825, and Henry entered the African Free School on Mott Street in 1826. There he met and formed lifelong friendships with James McCune Smith and Alexander Crummell, among others.

In 1834, Garnet and some of his classmates formed their own club, The Garrison Literary and Benevolent Association. Because the society was named after a controversial abolitionist, the public school where the group wanted to meet insisted that the group must first change their name. To do otherwise would be to risk mob violence. The club decided to keep their name and instead change their venue. The first meeting of the group garnered over 150 African American people under 20 years old — a powerful indicator of the dedication and resilience of the younger generation to nationwide abolition. Garnet is perhaps most famous for his radical speech of 1843, "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America." In this speech, Garnet breaks with tradition and instead of hoping to convince free people (primarily free white peoples) of the evils of slavery, Yet Garnet spoke directly to those enslaved, urging them to rebel against their masters.

Garnet further radicalized his position when he supported the colonization movement, which was largely unpopular among the black community. Garnet moved to England in 1850 and spoke on abolitionist themes. He went on to Jamaica as a missionary in 1852 and In 1859, he founded the African Civilization Society. In his 1860 speech, Garnet wrote of his belief that "Africa is to be redeemed by Christian civilization." Because of Garnet's outspoken views and national reputation, he was a prime target of a working-class mob during the July 1863 draft riots in New York City. Rioters mobbed the street where Garnet lived and called for him by name. Fortunately several white neighbors helped to conceal Garnet and his family. In February 12, 1865, Garnet became the first black person to deliver a sermon in the House of Representatives.

In 1876 Garnet began a physical and mental decline and expressed a great wish to die and be buried on African soil. He was able to realize this wish and he died in Africa on February 12, 1882, and was given a state funeral by the Liberian government. Rest in power and peace Henry Garnet!

Alexander Crummell (AC)

“I saw AC first at a Wilberforce commencement season, amid its bustle and crush. Tall, frail, and Black he stood, with simple dignity and an unmistakable air of good breeding. I talked with him apart, where the storming of the lusty young orators could not harm us. I spoke to him politely, then curiously, then eagerly, as I began to feel the fineness of his character, his calm courtesy, the sweetness of his strength, and his fair blending of the hope and truth of life. Instinctively I bowed before this man, as one bows before the prophets of the world.” —W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk.

Like fellow alum, Henry Highland Garnet, Alexander Crummell embraced the controversial belief that African Americans could, and should, return to Africa to colonize the nation of Liberia.

The son of an enslaved father and a free mother, Crummell was born in New York City in 1819. Crummell was educated at the New York African Free School, and, as was the case with other graduates of the school, Crummell had difficulty gaining access to higher education. He attended schools in New Hampshire and Oneida, New York and he was ordained a minister at the age of 25. Unfortunately, race excluded him from equal commerce with white clergy in the United States, and he moved to England, where he received a degree at Queens College, in Cambridge. Crummell spent over twenty years as a missionary to Liberia. In doing so, he occupied a complicated position as he came from a land which discriminated against his race, armed with the very beliefs in African inferiority that had made his own life so difficult. As a Christian minister, he sought to assimilate and 'civilize' Africans by bringing them Christianity to replace their own native customs and religious practices, in attempt to help them while African Americans in the United States faced the deep impacts of slavery. In 1880, Crummell founded a school and a church in Washington, D.C.

Peter Williams

Peter Williams Jr. (1786–1840) was an African-American Episcopal priest, the second to be 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 republic that had achieved independence in 1804 in the Caribbean. In the 1820s and 1830s, he strongly opposed the American Colonization Society's efforts to relocate free Blacks to the colony of Liberia, in West Africa.

In 1808 he organized St. Philip's African Church in lower Manhattan, the second Black Episcopal church in the United States. In 1827 he was a co-founder of Freedom's Journal, the first African-American owned and operated newspaper in the United States. In 1833 he founded the Phoenix Society, a mutual aid society for African Americans; that year he was also elected to the executive board of the interracial American Anti-Slavery Society.

In 1808 he was chosen to give a speech on the first anniversary of the United States' abolition of the international slave trade; his talk was An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade; Delivered in the African Church in the City of New-York, January 1, 1808. His speech was then published as a pamphlet; it was one of the earliest publications by a Black author about abolition.

Williams believed that abolitionist societies would rescue freed African-Americans from the ‘evil consequences’ of slavery through 'example, the lessons of morality, industry and economy', that would one day create a world where ‘all the distinctions between the inalienable rights of black men, and white’ were gone

He was a co-founder of the Freedom's Journal, the first Black newspaper in the United States.

Williams then went on in 1833 to found the Phoenix Society, a mutual aid society for African Americans. That same year he joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and was selected as one of the African-American leaders on the executive board of the interracial group.

Patrick Reason

First named Patrice Rison (March 17, 1816 – August 12, 1898), was one of the earliest African-American engravers and lithographers in the United States. He was active as an abolitionist (along with his brother Charles Lewis Reason). He was a leader in a fraternal order, gaining recognition for Hamilton Lodge No. 710, New York, as part of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America.

Reason set up his own shop, where he engraved portraits and other images for anti-slavery and other books and journals, as well as for individuals.

In 1869, Reason moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio. There he joined the firm of Sylvester Hogan, and created jewelry and plate engravings until his death in 1898.

Samuel E. Cornish

Although Samuel E. Cornish was not a graduate of the NYAFS (New York African Free School), his life and career were connected to the school's progress. Cornish was born free Delaware in 1795. Along with John B. Russworm, Cornish edited The Freedom's Journal, the first Black-owned and -operated newspaper in the United States. Freedom's Journal was the first newspaper to note and publish the important occurrences among the Black community, including Births, deaths, and marriages. The paper was circulated throughout 11 states, as well as Canada, Europe, and Haiti. The paper also featured stories about notable Black African Americans as well as providing international and local news stories. This publication in many way anticipated publications like Frederick Douglass' North Star.

Cornish resigned from the newspaper, but did not relinquish his role as an advocate for African Americans. Among other tasks in the community, Cornish worked on behalf of the New York African Free School, acting as a liaison in the sometimes tense relationship between the school administrators and the parents of young African Americans in the community. According to Charles C. Andrews, Cornish inquired "into the condition of every coloured family in this city." For Andrews, Cornish's "services have been of essential use, in stimulating the parents to send their children to school, and in furnishing more minute information relative to our coloured population." Cornish's reports to the Manumission Society seemed to indicate that it was not lack of interest that sometimes kept Black parents from sending their children to school, but rather, the often the systematic implications of poverty and racism families faced. It became impossible to spare children from the working world. In other cases, families might be willing to send their children to school, but lacked resources like the warm clothing students would need for the often long walk to class. In response to this need, local Black African American women collectively formed the African Dorcas Society, which worked to supply warm clothing for families in need. Cornish died in New York City in 1858.

We were able to find just 1 female AFS alumni, and her name is Serena Baldwin: Serena Baldwin was sitting in a city in Haiti, writing a letter. “Dear Teacher,” she began. “With pleasure I hasten to inform you of our safe arrival in St. Domingo.” It was September 29, 1824. Serena was about 14. Her teacher, Eliza J. Cox, was back in New York City, teaching other students. During the period of slavery in New York, most black people were not taught to read and write. There had always been a few masters who educated their male slaves, but not women or girls. The American Revolution had begun to change people’s thinking. After the war, some prominent whites formed the New York Manumission Society in order to provide legal help for blacks and to push the legislature for laws that would end slavery. They knew that black boys and girls would need an education. When the Episcopal Church opened the African Free School, the New York Manumission Society paid the expenses so every child could attend for free. Serena attended the girls’ department. In 1824, the year Serena finished her studies, there were about 150 girls and 350 boys in the African Free School. The girls learned to read and write, as well as to sew and knit. They made shirts, samplers, suspenders, and many other items. At graduation, their work was exhibited for the public. People came to admire the items on display and hear the students’ speeches. Many of these students later became important leaders of the black community. Serena was writing to thank Miss Cox for what she had taught her. She promised to follow all her teacher’s advice, and she would have the opportunity soon. Serena and some other girls from the African Free School had gone to Haiti to become teachers themselves. Haiti was a new, independent country, run by black people. The slaves had rebelled there, just as the American Patriots had. In her letter, Serena wrote: “Among your good wishes, you wish I may live to enjoy freedom. Dear Teacher, if ever there was a country where liberty dwells, it is here. It is a blessing enjoyed alike by all men, without respect to fortune or colour – it cannot be otherwise, as our motto is ‘Liberty and Equality.’” Serena went on to proudly describe the farm where she lived with her parents and brothers. They had 12 acres of land, a cottage, fruit trees, chickens, and two cows. She seemed very excited about what lay ahead for her and her new country.

Yet, where are all the other women alumni? as she was the only woman we could find out of the 150 girls in her class alone.