Prudence CRANDALL
1886 - THE CANTERBURY STORY. PRUDENCE CRANDALL AGAIN. Interesting Chapters in the Life of the Quaker School Marm Who Dared to Teach the Daughter of a Negro Half a Century Ago - Late Reparation Probable.

The story of Prudence Crandall, the abolitionist school teacher of Canterbury, Conn., is one of the most interesting in the history of the movement that resulted in the emancipation of the colored man. It is recalled now by the petition of the people of Canterbury, which was presented to the assembly the other day, parying for an appropriation from the state, under whose laws the noble woman suffered great hardships and indignities, for her relief in old age. It is to the credit of the people of Canterbury that the petition comes from them, for it was in that little Windham county village that Prudence Crandall was persecuted half a century ago. Signed to that petition are the names of the sons and grandsons of the men, yes and some of the men themselves, whose fanatical vengeance fell upon the school mistress because she dared to teach the daughter of a negro.

The Canterbury Female Boarding school was a flourishing educational institution in the winter of 1833. It had been established about two years, and its principal was Prudence Crandall. She had received her education at the Friends' Boarding school in Providence, and in 1831 she bought a large dwelling house in the center of the village of Canterbury and opened her school. The first intimation of the possesion by the young teacher of the abolition spirit that afterwards caused her so much trouble was manifested in a letter written January 18, 1833, to that prince of anti-slavery champions, William Lloyd Garrison. In that letter she said:

"I wish to know your opinion respecting changing white scholars for colored ones. I have been for some months past determined if possible during the remaining part of my life to benefit the people of color. I do not dare tell any one of my neighbors anything about the contemplated change in mys chool, and I beg of you, sir, that you will not expose it to any one; for if it was known, I have no reason to expect but it would ruin my present school. Will you be so kind as to write by the next mail, and give me your opinion on the subject."

The response was favorable, and soon the arrangements for opening the school were completed. Why did Miss Crandall contemplate so revolutionary a step, and why did she seek counsel, before all others, of William Lloyd Garrison? Her own account says that she had ascertained that a young colored woman named Sarah Harris, who visited Miss Crandall's colored servant, desired to attend the school and board at her own father's house some little distance fromt he village. "I allowed her to enter," says Miss Crandall in a letter to a friend. "By this act I gave great offense. The wife of an Episcopal clergyman who lived in the village told me, that if I continued that colored girl in my school, it could not be substained. I replied to her, that it might sink, then, for I should not turn her out! I very soon found that some of my school would leave not to return if the colored girl was retained. Under these circumstances I made up my mind that if it were possible I would teach colored girls exclusively."

As a result of that determination there appeared in Garrison's paper, The Liberator, March 2, 1833, an advertisement announcing that Miss Crandall's school would open the first Monday of the following April for the reception of young ladies and little misses of color. The branches taught were advertised to be reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, history, natural and moral philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, drawing and painting, usic on the piano, and French. The terms were $25 per quarter, one half paid in advance. Among those to whom she referred for endorsement of her school were William Lloyd Garrison and Arnold Buffum of Boston, Rev. S. S. Jocelyn of New Haven, Rev. Mr. Beman of Middletown, Rev. S. J. May of Brooklyn, Conn., and George Benson of Providence. Garrison endorsed her editorally in the Liberator, and urged colored people to support her school.

Already, however, the town of Canterbury has been thrown into an uproar by the news not only that Miss Crandall would not dismiss Sarah Harris, but would practically dismiss her white pupils instead, and make Canterbury the seat of the higher edcuation of "niggers." "The good people of Canterbury," wrote Arnold Buffum from Providence on March 4, "I learn, have had three town meetings last week, to devise weays and means to suppress P. Crandall's school, and I am informed that the excitement is so great that it would not be safe for me to appear there. George W. Benson, however, has ventured and gone there on Saturday afternoon last, to see what can be done in the case." Mr. Benson found that Miss Crandall, had already been visited by a committee of gentlemen, who represented "that by putting her design into execution she would bring disgrace upon them all." They "professed to feel a real regard for the colored people, and were perfectly willing they should be educated, provided it could be effected in some other place! - a sentiment," adds Mr. Benson, "you will say, worthy of a true colonizationist." He also learned of the calling of another town meeting for the 9th instant, at which the Rev. Samuel J. May, of the adjacent village of Brookly, had promised to be present as Miss Crandall's attorney, and his own services in the same capacity were gladly accepted. They were subsquently re-enforced by Arnold Buffam. On the even of the meeting Mr. Garrison wrote from Boston to Mr. Benson:

"Although distracted with care, I must seize my pen to express my admiration of your generous and prompt defense of Miss Crandall from her pitiful assailants. In view of their outrageous conduct, my indignation kindles intensely. What will be the result? If possible, Miss C. must be sustained at all hazards. If we suffer the school to be put down in Canterbury, other places will partake of the panic, and also prevent its introduction in their vicinity. We may as well "first, as last," meet this proscriptive spirit, and conquer it.

The meeting of the 9th refused to allow Messrs. May and Buffum to be heard on Miss Crandall's behalf, ont he ground of their being foreigners and interlopers, voted unanimously their disapprobation of the school, and pledged the town to oppose it at all hazards.

The struggle between the modest and heroic young Quaker woman and thw town lasted for nearly two years; the school was opened in April and attempts were immediately made under the law to frighten the pupils away, and to fine Miss Crandall for harboring them. In May an act prohibiting private schools for non-resident colored persons,a nd providing for the expulsion of the latter, was procured from the legislature, amid the greatest rejoicing in Canterbury (even to the ringing of church bells). Under this act, Miss Crandall was in June arrested and temporarily imprisoned in the county jail, twice tried (August and October) and convicted. Her case was carried up to the supreme court of erros, and her persecutors defeated on a techicality (July, 1834), and pending this litigation the most vindictive and inhuman measures were taken to isolate the school from the countenance and even the physical support of the townspeople. The shops and the meeting house were closed against teacher and pupils; carriage in the public conveyances was denied them; physicians would not wait upon them; Miss Crandall's own family and friends were forbidden under penalty of heavy fines to visit her; the well was filled with manure, and water from other sources refused; the house itself was smeared with filt, assailed with rotten eggs and stones and finally set on fire.

After that Miss Crandall went to the adjacent town of Brooklyn to live,a nd for years was indentified with the work of the anti slavery men. During and after the war she did much to help the children of the freedmen in an educational way, and her name is revered by all lovers of freedom. Miss Crandall, or rather Mrs. Philleo, is now living at Elk Falls, Kansas.

The feeling among the legislators is that what little reparation of the wrong done Miss Crandall can be made should be made speedily, and there is not much doubt of an appropriation, sufficient to keep her from want during her rapidly declining years, being made.

The New Haven Evening Register
New Haven, Connecticut
January 23, 1886

Learn more about the life of     Prudence CRANDALL.

Visit Hopkinton, Rhode Island, USA (Ashaway) (Hope Valley)
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.