More than 15,000 children were raised in the orphanage, and throughout its history letters and visits have revealed that hundreds if not thousands of “old boys and girls” looked back with admiration and respect at the home that nurtured them throughout their formative years. Du Bois that highlighted the conflict between the orphanage and the community it served, and it wasn’t until 1939 that it hired the first black trustee. ![]() ![]() ![]() While the white female managers and their male advisers were dedicated to uplifting these children, the evangelical, mainly Quaker founding managers also exhibited the extreme paternalistic views endemic at the time, accepting advice or support from the African American community only grudgingly. Through three wars, two major financial panics, a devastating fire during the 1863 Draft Riots, several epidemics, waves of racial prejudice, and severely strained budgets, it cared for orphaned, neglected, and delinquent children, eventually receiving financial support from such renowned New York families as the Jays, Murrays, Roosevelts, Macys, and Astors. This book uncovers the history of the Colored Orphan Asylum, founded in 1836. This history of the nation’s first orphanage for African American children, founded in New York City nearly two centuries ago.
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