Mr. May thus concluded his account of this event, and of the enterprise:
"The pupils were called together and I was requested to announce to them our decision. Never before had I felt so deeply sensible of the cruelty of the persecution which had been carried on for eighteen months in that New England village, against a family of defenseless females. Twenty harmless, well-behaved girls, whose only offense against the peace of the community was that they had come together there to obtain useful knowledge and moral culture, were to be told that they had better go away, because, forsooth, the house in which they dwelt would not be protected by the guardians of the town, the conservators of the peace, the officers of justice, the men of influence in the village where it was situated. The words almost blistered my lips. My bosom glowed with indignation. I felt ashamed of Canterbury, ashamed of Connecticut, ashamed of my country, ashamed of my color."[58]
Thus ended the generous, disinterested, philanthropic Christian enterprise of Prudence Crandall, but the law under which her enterprise was defeated was repealed in 1838.
It is to be regretted that Connecticut earned such an unenviable place in history as this. It seems strange, indeed, that such an occurrence could take place in the nineteenth century in a free State in a republic in North America! But such is "the truth of history."
DELAWARE
never passed any law against the instruction of Negroes, but in 1833 passed an act taxing every person who sold a slave out of the State, or brought one into the State, five dollars, which went into a school fund for the education of white children alone. In 1852, the Revised Statutes provided for the taxation of all the property of the State for the support of the schools for white children alone. So, by implication, Delaware prohibited the education of Colored children.
In 1840, the Friends formed the African School Association in Wilmington; and under its management two excellent schools, for boys and girls, were established.
FLORIDA.
On the 28th of December, 1848, an act was passed providing "for the establishment of common schools." The right to vote at district meetings was conferred upon every person whose property was liable to taxation for school purposes; but only white children were allowed school privileges.
In the same year an act was passed providing that the school funds should consist of "the proceeds of the school lands," and of all estates, real or personal, escheating to the State, and "the proceeds of all property found on the coast or shores of the State." In 1850 the counties were authorized to provide, by taxation, not more than four dollars for each child within their limits of the proper school age. In the same year the amount received from the sale of any slave, under the act of 1829, was required to be added to the school fund. The common school law was revised in 1853, and the county commissioners were authorized to add from the county treasury any sum they thought proper for the support of common schools.[59]