The Colored Orphan Asylum was founded in Manhattan in 1836 by a group of Quakers[2] led by Anna Shotwell and Mary Murray.

[3] Prior to its founding, orphaned black children were housed in jails or worked as beggars or chimney sweeps as orphanages refused to take them.

The orphanage initially offered schooling only for infants, feeling that their wards would not advance far in society due to being Black and orphans.

Older children were bound by indentured servitude in which they were contracted to families, both Black and white, to learn a trade or skill until age 21.

The families, in turn, paid a small fee to the Colored Orphan Asylum for the services which were placed in the bank for when the child left the institution.