Many of these noted benefactors belonged to that sect known in American history as Friends. True to their noble heritage, they faced the facts of social crises with intrepidity and strong convictions. They acted with unerring judgment and penetrating vision upon those principles sacred to the life and happiness of all mankind. In the vanguard of this honorable group, of martyrs to the cause of justice, stands an American school teacher, born of Quaker parentage, at Hopkinton, Rhode Island, September 3, 1803—Prudence Crandall. The noble purpose and sympathetic nature of this great teacher are clearly demonstrated in this extract from a letter addressed to William Lloyd Garrison, January 18th, 1833:[1]
"Now I will tell you why I write you, and the object is this: 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 my school 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.
"Yours, with greatest respect,
"Prudence Crandall."[2]
This letter shows clearly that Prudence Crandall foresaw that any undertaking of an educational nature in behalf of Negroes would meet with opposition, require personal sacrifices, and demand unfaltering courage and patience.
That she was willing to undergo these tests was proved when a young Negro girl applied for admission to the school which she was then conducting for white girls only. This ambitious pupil of color was Sarah Harris, seventeen years old, the daughter of a respectable man who owned a small farm near the village of Canterbury. Sarah had attended the same district school in which the majority of Prudence Crandall's students had received their elementary training and had proved herself a bright scholar and a pious young lady. So deeply impressed was the teacher with this girl's plea and her earnest desire to get a broader education to teach other girls of color, that Prudence Crandall admitted Sarah to her school.
The students themselves offered no opposition nor manifested any objection to her presence. Parents, however, began to complain and informed Prudence Crandall that her school would not be supported if she kept the Negro girl as a student. To this threat Prudence Crandall replied: "It might sink then for I should not turn her out." Soon the white girls began to leave the school, but the philanthropic teacher was determined to adhere to the principles of democratic education. She finally gave up the teaching of white girls entirely and brought a number of Negro children into her school, then situated in the most aristocratic part of the town of Canterbury. "If the Canterbury people," said Ellen D. Larned, "had quietly accepted the situation and left them in peace the difficulty would soon have ended. Even if the children had remained they would have given them little annoyance. Twenty Indian lads were received into Plainfield Academy a few years later, and few outside of the village even heard of them."[3]
This step, however, aroused the most intense feeling of the town people and met with strong and immediate opposition. A committee of four of the chief men of the village, Adams, Frost, Fenner and Harris, visited Prudence Crandall and attempted to show her that such an undertaking was decidedly objectionable and seriously detrimental to the welfare of the whites of the community. One Esquire Frost intimated that Prudence Crandall's project fostered social equality and intermarriage of whites and blacks. To this insidious insinuation, she bluntly replied: "Moses had a black wife." To emphasize their decided opposition to this project, the people called a public meeting and drew up and adopted resolutions of a hostile nature. One of the leading politicians of that day, Andrew T. Judson, was so incensed at Miss Crandall's action that he denounced her in the most severe and scathing terms.
The Rev. Mr. May and Mr. Buffum, who were present on behalf of Miss Crandall, made several attempts to speak in her defense but were rudely and abruptly prohibited. Denied the privilege of espousing her cause in this meeting, Mr. May, upon adjournment, rose from his seat and addressed the people as they were leaving the hall: "Men of Canterbury, I have a word for you! Hear me!" A few turned to listen, and he pleaded with force and feeling the cause of the noble little teacher of Canterbury. He told them that Prudence Crandall was willing to move her school from its present situation, which was next door to the residence of Mr. Judson, her bitterest enemy, to some more retired part of the city.
May's arguments, however, were of no avail and only drew forth tirades of invective and abuse; for Mr. Judson responded: "Mr. May, we are not merely opposed to the establishment of that school in Canterbury; we mean there shall not be such a school set up anywhere in our state. The colored people can never rise from their menial condition in our country; they ought not to be permitted to rise here. They are an inferior race of beings, and never can or ought to be recognized as the equals of the whites. Africa is the place for them. I am in favor of the colonization scheme. Let the niggers and their descendants be sent back to their fatherland and there improve themselves as much as they can. I am a colonizationist. You and your friend Garrison have undertaken what you cannot accomplish. The condition of the colored population of our country can never be essentially improved on this continent. You are fanatical about them. You are violating the constitution of our Republic, which settled forever the status of the black men in this land. They belong to Africa. Let them be sent back there or kept as they are here. The sooner you abolitionists abandon your project the better for our country, for the niggers and yourselves."[4]