Prudence Crandall
Teacher of “Young Misses and Little Misses of Color’
1803 – 1890

Recently I scanned a local magazine photo spread of local high school graduates, a group made up of young people of various races and ethnicities. Quite a contrast to what Prudence Crandall envisioned and tried to implement over a hundred years ago when she added new students to her school. For hers was a vision of educating promising young Black students despite some believing such an action would ruin their community.

Born in September, 1803 in Rhode Island, Prudence Crandall was from a Quaker family who later moved to Connecticut. From early childhood Prudence wanted to be a school teacher, which was about the only respectable career possibility, for women at the time. So after she finished her education, she taught at a Quaker school in Plainfield, Connecticut, but then was asked to open and operate a girls’ boarding school in the upscale community of Canterbury. One of her early supporters in this school was Andrew T .Judson, a wealthy local politician who not only encouraged Prudence to establish the school but suggested the school’s location—directly across from his home.

About the same time and not far away in Boston, William Randolph Garrison established his newspaper The Liberator—a publication that would be the center of its founder’s abolitionist sentiments. The movement of abolitionism began as a response to a side effect issue of slavery—the status of free Black citizens in the community. There many enslaved persons in the South, but in the Northern states—as slavery faded—that meant that there were former slaves, or free Black persons, living in some places. The pressing question was whether or not they would be totally accepted into their local communities.

One early solution to this question was the idea espoused by the Colonizationists who opposed slavery but promoted the idea of free Blacks leaving the U.S. and settling in Africa. (In fact, many of these opinions were instrumental in establishing the African country of Liberia.) However, while abolitionists also opposed slavery they believed that Black people should remain in America as equal participants with all the rights of white citizens. Both ideas were controversial in an era when many Americans did oppose slavery but were unfortunately uncomfortable with Blacks living as equals among them.

Having been raised as a Quaker, Crandall opposed slavery and leaned toward the abolitionist belief as she became an avid reader of Garrison’s publication. Since abolitionists supported public education for Black citizens, Crandall decided to put the idea into action as she came to know a young Black girl named Sarah Harris, who was a friend of Crandall’s housekeeper. Sarah’s parents were local farmers and since Sarah was anxious to become a teacher Prudence believed she would be a perfect student for her school. However, though her race seemed to make that impossible, Crandall would not let it be a barrier and so she enrolled Sarah in her school.

The public uproar at Sarah’s arrival at the school began in just a short time, as the students’ parents as well as others in the community, all demanded that Sarah be removed. In fact one woman told Crandall “If you keep that girl, you’ll find yourself without any school.” But Prudence stood firm saying, “Then so be it. I will not turn her out.”

Then Crandall decided to not only retain Sarah as a student, but to dismiss her white students and enroll only Black girls.

In 1833 she wrote to Garrison, asking him to suggest promising young Black girls as students, and to keep her request confidential. They met briefly, and soon Garrison printed a notice about the opportunity: “Miss Prudence Crandall of Canterbury, Connecticut would be open ‘for the reception of young ladies and little misses of color.’”

During this time the local opposition grew—her critics now included her former supporter Andrew Judson. Actually, their reasons for opposing Black girls in their community were to be similar to those used more than a hundred years later in the midst of the Civil Rights era. Canterbury critics claimed that educating the Black students would harm their community and even inspire violence. In fact, one rumor went around that Prudence’s purpose was to enroll Black students to marry them off to local white residents.

Crandall would not be discouraged and proceeded to open her Canterbury Female Boarding School, with twelve Black students, and other girls coming from as far away as New York. These well dressed and mannerly students, were no different from the former white students, but the community still seethed. Judson turned to politics, to close Crandall’s school by means of legislation, but though that failed others in the community responded with more drastic moves.

Local businesses agreed not to do business with Crandall’s students, nor would carriage drivers take them anywhere. Even the town doctor declined to treat them. The Congregational church even barred the students from attending services.

Also, perhaps reflecting their parents’ opposition to Crandall, crowds of young vandals pelted the schoolhouse with stones and rotten eggs, and then dropped manure into the well. This made it especially difficult for Crandall and her students since it meant she lacked fresh water. When her neighbors refused to assist, she asked her father for help and he transported water from his own distant home.

Then in May, 1833 the Connecticut legislature enacted Judson’s long sought measure to close the school. The so called “Black Law” made it illegal to “Set up or establish…any school… for the instruction or education of colored persons who are not inhabitants of the state.” Within days after the enactment, Crandall was arrested and jailed, and would stay there because a judge decreed, she could not be bonded out. Actually, Prudence refused to allow her friends to try to bond her out even if it could be possible, so she would appear as a martyr. However, she was eventually released as she also continued to attract prestigious supporters.

At her trial her lawyers reasoned that the “Black Law” was unconstitutional, since the U.S. constitution guaranteed rights for all citizens, including by implication a public education. For their part the prosecution argued that Blacks were not citizens. In the end the judge seemed to believe the law was constitutional but when the jurors could not make a decision, the case went to higher courts. Then as the appeal process rolled on, Crandall continued to operate her school—and though she dismissed her out of state students—she added nearly 20 Connecticut residents.

However, the community was still in an uproar and vandals began to damage the school. In January, 1834 the school was set ablaze, though it did not destroy the structure. Then in September, a mob attacked the school and shattered nearly 90 window panes with iron bars. Finally. to keep her students safe, Crandall closed the school that month.

In July. 1834 the Connecticut Court of Errors (later the Supreme Court) overturned the lower decisions and ended her case for lack of evidence. However, in the judicial process the court did not address the issue of whether Blacks were citizens with recognizable rights.

A month later Crandall married a Baptist minister named Rev. Calvin Philleo from Ithaca, New York and they left Canterbury to live later in Massachusetts, and then in New York Eventually they settled in Illinois, where Crandall opened a school while supporting women’s suffrage. However, the couple separated in 1842 because of the husband’s reported physical and mental disability. He died in 1874.

In 1877 Crandall moved with her brother to Kansas and died there in 1890 at age 86.

In 1886 Prudence Crandall was somewhat vindicated. The Connecticut legislature issued an apology, offered the return of her schoolhouse as well as a $400 pension. But Crandall declined the return of the house, telling the legislature she was quite content with her small school in Kansas. Still, she accepted the financial support. A vindication—for a woman who may have operated the first racially integrated school in the U.S.

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Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:
Wikipedia
Women’s History
Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame
Women of Courage, Margaret Truman, Wm. Morrow and Co. Inc, New York 1976