The African Free School was an institution founded by the New York Manumission Society, an organization that advocated the full abolition of African slavery, in November 1787 in New York City.
The organization's members were all wealthy and influential white men, founded by statesman and abolitionist John Jay and included Alexander Hamilton among its members.
The original institution, the first free school founded to provide education to the children of slaves and freemen, was a one bedroom schoolhouse that held about 40 students. By the end of its term as a private school, there were a total of seven schools and had educated thousands of girls and boys.
The school was founded just nine years after the society helped a state law passed in 1785 that prohibited the sale of slaves imported into the state. The law also eased on the manumission of Africans already committed to slavery. In 1835, African Free School was integrated into the public school system.
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