Print and Performance

While the New York African Free Schools (NYAFS) drew crowds of people for public Examination Days, an emergent Black print culture ensured that the children of the NYAFS held an audience through publication, as well. In 1828, NYAFS students composed addresses to the American Convention for the Abolition of Slavery. This section of the exhibit features such an essay written by twelve-year-old George R. Allen and traces the prolific publication history of this address to reveal how the education of Black children was central to political conversations on abolition.