African Dorcas Association

The African Dorcas Association was a black women's community aid society founded in New York City in January 1828.[1] The women of this group sewed clothes for New York's black children so that they would have appropriate attire for school. Through this work, the members of the African Dorcas Association hoped to make education more accessible for black youth in New York City.[2] After just one year, this organization distributed 168 articles of clothing to school children.[1] The society remained in operation into the 1830s.[3] Some prominent members included Margaret Francis[4] and Henrietta Green Regulus Ray.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Leslie M. Alexander and Walter C. Rucker, eds., Encyclopedia of African American History, (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 295.
  2. "Constitution (of the African Dorcas Association)," Freedom's Journal, New York, NY, February 1, 1828.
  3. Leslie M. Alexander and Walter C. Rucker, eds., Encyclopedia of African American History, (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 296.
  4. Anne M. Boylan, "Benevolence and Antislavery Activity among African American Women in New York and Boston, 1820-1840," in The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women's Political Culture in Antebellum America, edited by Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. Van Horne (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994), 124.
  5. Leslie M. Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 180.
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