![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In the summer of 1863, New York City experienced the Draft Riots, the largest urban uprising in the nation’s history. By this point fewer than a third of the children were orphans, and at about 12 years of age, many were returned to their parents or placed in positions as farm laborers or domestic servants. The Asylum housed anywhere from 200 to 800 children at any given time in the antebellum period. James McCune Smith, the nation’s first licensed black medical doctor, became the orphanage’s medical director in 1846. The organization moved in 1843 to a large four-story home at 43rd and Fifth Avenue. It was managed by three of the founding members, Hanna and Anna Shotwell and Mary Murray. The first building was purchased in 1836 and was located at 12th and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. As a consequence, 25 people, mostly Quakers, Presbyterians, and other abolitionists founded the Colored Orphans Asylum of New York. There was a need for shelter and schooling for numerous black children in the city. General poverty among all ex-slaves and many free blacks also meant families could not afford to stay together. Although black New Yorkers were free, many of their families were broken because of the sale of parents or children. Slavery was abolished in New York state in 1827. There was much racial unrest in New York City, New York in the early 1800s as immigrants from across Europe and migrants from neighboring states arrived in the city. ![]()
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