s, Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, were the largest cities of free colored people
then in the North. In Boston there were 2,261; New York City, 12,574,
while in Philadelphia there were 22,185

As early as 1787 the free colored people of Philadelphia, through two
distinguished representatives, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, "two
men of the African race," as the chroniclers say, "saw the irreligious
and uncivilized state" of the "people of their complexion," and
finally concluded "that a society should be formed without regard to
religious tenets, provided the persons lived an orderly and sober
life," the purpose of the society being "to support one another in
sickness and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children."
Accordingly a society was established, known as the Free African
Society of Philadelphia, and on the 17th, 5th-mo., 1787, articles were
published, including the following, which is inserted to show the
breadth of the society's purpose:

"And we apprehend it to be necessary that the children of our
deceased members be under the care of the Society, so far as to pay
for the education of their children, if they cannot attend free
school; also to put them out apprentices to suitable trades or places,
if required."[2]

Shortly after this we read of "the African School for the free
instruction of the black people," and in 1796, "The Evening Free
School, held at the African Methodist Meeting House in Philadelphia"
was reported as being "kept very orderly, the scholars behaving in a
becoming manner, and their improvement beyond the teachers'
expectations, their intellects appearing in every branch of learning
to be equal to those of the fairest complexion." The name African, as
the reader will notice, is used with reference to school, church, and
individuals; although not to the complete exclusion of "colored
people" and "people of color." These phrases seem to have been coined
in the West Indies, and were there applied only to persons of mixed
European and African descent. In the United States they never obtained
such restricted use except in a very few localities. The practice of
using African as a descriptive title of the free colored people of the
North became very extensive and so continued up to the middle of the
century. There were African societies, churches and schools in all the
prominent centres of this population.

In 1843 one, Mr. P. Loveridge, Agent for Colored Schools of New York