Prudence Crandall’s Legacy. Donald E. Williams
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her plans for the school: “Saturday morning I called on several of the neighbors and to my astonishment they exhibited but little opposition.”30 On Monday, February 25, 1833, buoyed by the lack of hostility if not support from her family and neighbors, Crandall gathered her students together at the Canterbury Female Boarding School. Her pupils were well aware of the controversy regarding Sarah Harris; nonetheless, they were stunned when Crandall announced the closure of her school. The school was as busy as ever; parents had not yet begun to withdraw their daughters from the school, and it was full to capacity with twenty-four students.31 In subsequent accounts, writers often claimed that many or all of the white students had withdrawn from Crandall’s school. In 1833, however, Samuel May wrote that Prudence “informed her pupils, then twenty-four in number, that, at the commencement of the next term, her school would be open for the reception of colored girls; and that twenty had engaged to come to her at that time. This annunciation caused a great excitement.”32 Crandall’s announcement was met with confusion and sadness. Most if not all of the white students never objected to Sarah Harris joining their ranks. They could not continue as students at Crandall’s school because adults—in some cases their own parents—opposed the idea of a black student attending their classes.
As the students relayed the news to their families, the reality of Crandall’s plan took hold. The indifferent reaction she initially received when she told a few neighbors changed dramatically. One citizen of Canterbury called her idea to educate black women “reprehensible” and described the thought of young black women living in the center of town as “utterly intolerable.”33 Another said her decision showed a reckless, “stiff necked” and stubborn streak.34 Others viewed Crandall as ungrateful and vengeful. As one local historian later said, “The people of Canterbury saw to their supreme horror and consternation that this popular school in which they had taken so much pride, was to be superseded by something so anomalous and phenomenal that it could hardly be comprehended.”35
9. Canterbury, Connecticut, in the 1830s. The Canterbury Congregational Church is in the foreground; Crandall’s school is on the far left.
Canterbury, Connecticut, in the 1830s. From John Warner Barber, Connecticut Historical Collections (New Haven, Conn.: B. L. Hamlen, 1836), 423. Collection of the Prudence Crandall Museum, Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, State of Connecticut.
Critics doubted the “philanthropy” of her decision and attributed it to financial self-interest.36 Some claimed she stood to profit more from a school for black women. That assertion ignored the obvious fact that Crandall’s school was already thriving; dismissing Sarah Harris would have preserved a surer path to continued financial success. William Jay wrote, “Whatever may have been her motives, and pecuniary ones would not have been unlawful, she had a perfect right to open a school for pupils of any color whatever.”37 Crandall summed up her decision with a question: “Shall I be inactive and permit prejudice … or shall I venture to enlist in the ranks of those who with the Sword of Truth dare hold combat with prevailing iniquity?”38
On Monday night, February 25, 1833, a group of men who had supported Crandall’s original school gathered to discuss the new developments. The following morning, the day after Crandall told the white students of their dismissal, “four of the most powerful men of the town” called on Crandall at nine o’clock in the morning.39 Attorney and justice of the peace Rufus Adams, attorney Daniel Frost Jr., Dr. Andrew Harris, and merchant Richard Fenner agreed to the task of “persuading her, if possible, to give up the project.”40 One of Crandall’s opponents later wrote that the men made their case for Miss Crandall to reconsider her actions with great respect and decorum.41
Crandall did not view the men and their treatment of her as either respectful or polite. Immediately after they left her home, she wrote that they had focused on “what shall be done to destroy the school.”42 They told Crandall they would make sure her school failed if she did not reverse her decision.43 She rejected their threats and brought the meeting to a close. Crandall managed to conceal her anxiety; the men conceded that their threats failed to “produce any visible effect.”44 As they left, however, Crandall realized she faced powerful opponents. Her initial prediction from the previous week—that any opposition to her school would quickly fade away—now changed dramatically.
As soon as the men left, Crandall wrote to Garrison. She asked him to come quickly to Canterbury and bring Arnold Buffum to support her. She then wrote to Simeon Jocelyn and told him about the threats the men had made. They will “do everything in their power to destroy my undertaking,” Crandall said.45 She asked Jocelyn to intercede with Arthur Tappan and persuade him to come to Canterbury. Tappan’s presence “would alleviate the feelings of many,” Crandall said.46 She closed by asking Jocelyn for help and advice, and twice asked him to write to her “IMMEDIATELY.”47
The following day, Wednesday, February 27, 1833, word of Crandall’s plan for her school and the opposition of local town fathers reached Samuel May in Brooklyn, Connecticut. “Although a stranger, I addressed a letter to her, assuring her of my sympathy,” May said, “and of my readiness to help her all in my power.”48 May noted that the prominent location of her schoolhouse—in the center of the town at the intersection of two main roads—likely contributed to the controversy.
“Perhaps your removal to some more retired situation would at once allay the violence of your opponents,” May wrote, “and be more favorable to your pupils, who would not be so exposed to insult as they might be where you now are.”49 He told Crandall that Canterbury officials had scheduled a town meeting regarding the school, and if she wished, he would attend on her behalf.50 May’s offer was significant—as a woman Crandall could not speak at a town meeting or vote on any motions. May’s unsolicited letter encouraged Crandall, and she sent a quick response begging him to come to Canterbury.51
As Crandall worked furiously to assemble those who could defend her, William Lloyd Garrison prepared to leave on a trip to England in April. He had high expectations and hoped “the enterprise will give dignity to the abolition cause in this country … and secure the patronage and applause of abolitionists in Great Britain.”52 Garrison expected his journey to last for at least six months and inquired among his friends for someone to serve as guest editor for the Liberator.
In Boston, Maria Stewart continued writing and speaking out. On the evening of February 27, 1833, she delivered a “Lecture on African Rights and Liberty” to an audience of men and women at the African Masonic Hall in Boston. “Talk, without effort, is nothing,” Stewart said. “We have performed the labor, they have received the profits; we have planted the vines, they have eaten the fruits … They say that we are not capable of becoming like white men, and that we can never rise to respectability in this country. They would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through. African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States. …”53
Stewart asked black men and women, but especially black men, to fight harder for their rights. “Show me our fearless and brave, our noble and gallant ones,” she said. “You are abundantly capable, gentlemen, of making yourselves men of distinction; and this gross neglect, on your part, causes my blood to boil within me.”54 Years later, William Cooper Nell remembered the obstacles she faced: “Maria W. Stewart—fired with a holy zeal to speak her sentiments on the improvement of colored Americans, encountered an opposition even from her Boston circle of friends, that would have dampened the ardor of most women.”55
As the month of February ended, Prudence Crandall anxiously waited to hear from William Lloyd Garrison, Simeon S. Jocelyn, and Samuel May. She also wanted Arnold Buffum and Arthur Tappan to help defend her school. When the committee of town fathers decided to pay Crandall a second visit, however, she again faced her opponents alone.
On Friday, March 1, 1833, Rufus Adams, Daniel Frost, Dr. Andrew