Black Education in New York City during the 1830s

In this essay, the author

• Explains that the "problem of the color line" was identified over seventy years before w. e. b. du bois diagnosed it in 1903.
• Explains that the emergence of a more militant antislavery movement early in the decade refocused the northern anti-slavery struggle and enlarged the arena for blacks to participate.
• Explains that while many societies were short-lived, they represented a movement among free blacks, unprecedented to that time, to better their lives and achieve freedom through education.

• Explains that the "problem of the color line" was identified over seventy years before w. e. b. du bois diagnosed it in 1903.
• Explains that the emergence of a more militant antislavery movement early in the decade refocused the northern anti-slavery struggle and enlarged the arena for blacks to participate.
• Explains that while many societies were short-lived, they represented a movement among free blacks, unprecedented to that time, to better their lives and achieve freedom through education.
• Explains that for blacks before the civil war, attaining literacy was fraught with incredible obstacles. white literary associations discriminated against african americans.
• Explains that the new york manumission society, a white organization founded in 1785, was the most important organization providing formal education to blacks.
• Explains that african americans were demanding increased representation in the administrative body of the afs.
• Analyzes how the egalitarian language of the american revolution gave black women and men rhetorical ammunition with which to challenge the country to live up to its democratic ideals.
• Explains that the american colonization society perpetuated malevolent stereotypes that blacks were intellectually deficient and incapable of remedying this defect.
• Explains that by the early 1830s there was little support for african colonization. people condemned the society's efforts at repatriation.
• Explains that blacks in new york city organized around educational initiatives for various reasons. they continued a trend of opening spaces in civil society to deal with issues facing their community.
• Explains that the philomathean society was formed in 1830 by several black men who devoted themselves to the improvement of literature and useful knowledge.
• Explains that the philomathean society membership consisted of middle-class males and prominent black leaders in new york city.
• Explains that most literary societies required members to pay regular dues and included moral criteria for joining, but it also shrunk the pool of possible membership applicants.
• Explains that educational societies struggled to maintain individuality, but they often worked together in order for them all to survive. the philomatheans organized a benefit for the female dorcas society and sponsored an exhibition for amistad captives.
• Explains that the phoenix society of new york, founded in 1833, was the largest of the african american educational societies.
• Explains that having white officers gave the phoenix society the ability to make wider appeals for funding, but the organization ran up against financial difficulties constantly.
• Analyzes how the phoenix society tried to tackle serious issues plaguing new york city's black population. they wanted to be census takers, educators, moral reformers, philanthropists and job placement agents.
• Analyzes how rev. peter williams, jr., started his own private high school in 1831. while the african free schools made primary education acceptable, the idea of secondary education for blacks was alien and considered useless to the majority of whites.
• Explains that the conventional address of the second annual convention of people of color eloquently articulated the need for higher classical and manual education.
• Explains that peter williams' school was short-lived, but he helped young blacks obtain secondary and university educations. in 1833, the phoenix society established a classical high school for colored youth.
• Explains that the high school for colored youth was a reprisal of both william's school and the previous phoenix society high school.
• Explains that the high school was in dire financial straits by july of 1837. the female department reopened in september at a cost of three dollars per quarter to students.
• Explains that the philomathean and phoenix societies, although the largest and most enduring, were not the only literary societies operating in the city during the period.
• Explains that black women organized to contribute to the educational efforts of the community, such as the african dorcas society and the new york female literary society.
• Explains that abolitionist newspapers, national conventions, and local developments allowed african americans to stay abreast of what was happening in other cities.
• Explains that national conventions were the other way leaders communicated the concerns of their particular constituencies and tried to devise a strategy to combat racial oppression and slavery.
• Explains that philadelphia had the most african american benevolent associations—80 in 1838, not including five explicit literary societies.
• Explains that the black populations of boston and pittsburgh were smaller than philadelphia or new york city, but still organized around educational initiatives.
• Explains how pittsburgh's black community organized the african education society in 1831. they worried not about prejudice from whites, knowing it would be "coolly received" by many.
• Explains that black new yorkers were not alone in their pursuit of formal education during the 1830s. from maine to michigan, blacks formed associations and conducted schools for the purposes of dispensing knowledge, elevating the race, and erasing the claims that african americans did not deserve to be citizens.
• Explains that the years 1830 through 1837 were the heyday of black organizational ferment around educational initiatives in new york city.
• Concludes that the 1830s were simultaneously a decade of increasing democracy and increasing segregation, social reform and dogged maintenance of the status quo.
• Analyzes how the intent to exclude manifested itself in various large and small ways. blacks were discriminated against in the job market until unemployment and underemployment levels reached epidemic proportions.
• Explains that the black community in new york city did not simply accept the current state of affairs with resignation. they believed that they were included in the covenants that were the declaration of independence and the constitution.