The 1st African Free School in NY

It was founded by members of the New York Manumission Society (an organization that advocated the full abolition of African slavery), including Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, on November 2, 1787. For the first twenty years between forty and sixty students attended the school. In 1791, a female teacher was employed to teach female students needlework. 

After the schoolhouse on Cliff Street burned down in 1814, members of the New York Manumission Society raised funds for a new building on William Street. A few months after the new schoolhouse was opened, it became so crowded that they opened another schoolroom to better accommodate the girls who wanted to learn sewing. In the intervening years, the female branch of the school had basically been abandoned. After a while, even this accommodation became too crowded. 

More appeals went out to the wealthy citizens of New York, and another school, deemed No. 2, was erected on Mulberry Street in 1820. By this time, five hundred students were enrolled on the registers.