Learn about AFS History

• Introduction
• The History of the School
  • Bricks and Mortar
  • Curriculum
  • Students’ Voices
  • The Child and Freedom
  • Performing Freedom
  • Teachers vs. Parents
• Race and Antebellum New York City

The History of the School

Performing Freedom

The performances given by the students of the New York African Free School were a part of a larger social dynamic through which black New Yorkers were literally performing the role of freedom—roles that they were not sure they would be allowed to inhabit in real life. Early-nineteenth-century New York was a place of incredible change and possibility. The population was exploding—immigrants poured into the city. Historians have suggested that at this time of cultural and financial flux, no one was sure of what the boundaries could—or should—be between races and classes. For instance, although there was a good deal of racial prejudice against African Americans, there is also some evidence of alliances, or at least examples of friendly coexistence, between blacks and immigrants in the city's famous dancing halls.

In this era of seemingly unbounded possibilities the only way to know the limits of one's freedom was to test them. As historian Shane White has argued convincingly, black New Yorkers undertook the challenge of performing their freedom—acting out the role of free, equal, and confident citizens—on the streets, in the courts, and in the theaters.¹ For example, the African Grove Theater delighted black audiences—and outraged white critics—by putting on productions of Shakespeare. By doing so, the theater troupe was appropriating white culture for themselves—having black actors inhabit roles reserved for the elite was a revolutionary act in itself. One of the earliest players at the Grove was Ira Aldridge, an alumnus of the New York African Free School, who would go on to be the most famous African American actor of his day.