FOOTNOTES:
[1] Garrison's Garrison, I, Chap. X, p. 315; B. C. Steiner's History of Slavery in Connecticut (Johns Hopkins University Studies, XI, 415-422).
[2] May's Antislavery Conflict.
[3] Johns Hopkins University, Studies in Historical and Political Science, XI, p. 417. Larned's Windham County, p. 493.
[4] May's Antislavery Conflict, p. 47.
[5] Garrison's Garrison, I, p. 341.
[6] Larned's Windham County, Connecticut, II, 490-502.
[7] This law was:
Whereas, attempts have been made to establish literary institutions in this State, for the instruction of colored persons belonging to other States and counties, which would tend to the great increase of the colored population of the state, and thereby to the injury of the people: Therefore,
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Assembly convened, that no person shall set up or establish in this State any school, academy or literary institution for the instruction or education of colored persons who are not inhabitants of this State; nor instruct or teach in any school, or other literary institution whatsoever, in this State; nor harbor or board, for the purpose of attending or being taught or instructed in any such school, academy, or literary institution, any colored person who is not an inhabitant of any town in this State, without the consent in writing first obtained, of a majority of the civil authority, and also of the Selectmen of the town, in which such school, academy, or literary institution is situated, etc. See Superior Court, October Term, 1833, and Report of Arguments of Counsel in the Case of Prudence Crandall; also The Laws of Connecticut, 1833.
[8] Garrison's Garrison, I. ch. X, and Larned's Windham County, Connecticut, II, 490-502.
[9] The report of this case was:
This information charges Prudence Crandall with harboring and boarding certain colored persons, not inhabitants of any town in this State, for the purpose of attending and being taught and instructed in a school, set up and established in said town of Canterbury, for the instruction and education of certain colored persons, not inhabitants of this State.
She is not charged with setting up a school contrary to law, not with teaching a school contrary to law; but with harboring and boarding colored persons, not inhabitants of this State, without license, for the purpose of being instructed in such school.
It is, however, not here alleged that the school was set up without license, or that the scholars were instructed by those who had no license.
If it is an offence within the statute to harbor or board such persons without license, under all circumstances, then this information is correct. But if the act, in the description of the defense itself, shows, that under some circumstances, it is no offence, then this information is defective.
The object in view of the legislature, as disclosed by the preamble, is to prevent injurious consequences resulting from the increase of the colored population, by means of literary institutions, attempted to be established for the instruction of that class of inhabitants of other States. Such institutions and instructors teaching such schools are prohibited, unless licensed, as are also persons from harboring or boarding scholars of that description, without license.
From the first reading of the Act, it might seem as if licenses must be obtained by each of these classes; by those who set up the school, those who instruct it and those who board the pupils; but, it is believed, this cannot have been intended. The object professedly aimed at is, to prevent the increase of this population, which, it is supposed, will take place by allowing them free education, and instruction; to prevent which it provides, 1st, That no person shall set up or establish any school for that purpose, without license: 2d, That no one shall instruct in any school, etc. without license: and 3rd, That no one shall board or harbor such persons, so to be instructed in any such school etc. without license. The object, evidently is to regulate the schools, not the boarding houses; the latter only is auxiliary to the former.
This information charges, that this school was set up in Canterbury, for the purpose of educating these persons of color, not inhabitants of this State, that they might be instructed and educated; but omits to state that it was not licensed. This omission is a fatal defect; as in an information on a penal statute, the prosecutor must set forth every fact that is necessary to bring the case within the statute; and every exception within the enacting clause of the act, descriptive of the offence, must be negated. See Smith v. Mouse, 6 Green 1, p. 274; and Judson's Remarks to the Jury, Superior Court, October Term, 1833.