Quaker abolitionist Prudence Crandall, born on September 3, 1803, challenged the standards of her time. She founded the popular Canterbury Female Boarding School in Connecticut in 1831 with the support of religious leaders, businessmen, and prominent lawyers.
The initial students were from upper-class families in the community. Their parents hoped for a better-than-average education for their daughters.
The New York Times reports Crandall bypassed “traditionally female skills like needlework.” Instead, the ambitious curriculum included “the kinds of rigorous coursework presented at mid-19th century boys’ schools,” like chemistry and geography.
Her education at the New England Friends’ Boarding School prepared the schoolmistress with mathematics, Latin, and science knowledge. It also taught Crandall the value of equal educational opportunities.
According to the state’s historical records, the young headmistress’s problems started in the fall of 1832 after Crandall enrolled a 20-year-old Black woman, Sarah Harris, who wanted to open a school for Black children.
The timing of Harris’ admittance was momentous. The New York Times wrote it was significant because “slavery and the role of free Blacks in American society were becoming ever-hotter issues nationally.”
As a result, families and supporters threatened to remove their daughters from the academy. After a local clergyman’s wife warned Crandall the school would be permanently closed, she became more determined to help Black students.
She defied them. Moreover, on April 1, 1833, Crandall announced she would only enroll Black women at the school. “By early May, 17 black students from Philadelphia, New York, Providence, Boston, and Connecticut were enrolled.”
According to The New York Times, “Crandall’s name became synonymous internationally with bravery and audacity.”
How Fears of Increasing Racial Equality Affect Crandall
Connecticut History.org wrote that by the 1830s, the fears of increasing racial equality between Blacks and whites concerned the state’s white population.
Furthermore, “the widespread belief that African Americans were intellectually inferior to whites threatened by Black attendance at an elite school.”
Women’s History website explains there was also fear among the white residents of Canterbury that the school would lead to more Blacks moving into their neighborhoods, which they also feared would lead to interracial marriage.
These beliefs were factors affecting Crandall’s academy. As a result, these misconceptions prompted legal problems and social scorn for her efforts to educate free Black girls.
Legal Quagmire Increases Crandall’s Academy Grows
The controversy increased as students joined the Canterbury Female Boarding School from out of state.
As a result, citizens of Canterbury and nearby towns pushed the Connecticut General Assembly to pass a law banning Crandall from running the school.
Legislators enacted the “Black Law” on May 24, 1833. This law prohibited out-of-state Black students from attending any Connecticut school without local permission.
Authorities arrested Crandall for violating the Black Law in August. Overall, she stood trial three times for operating her academy. Connecticut History.org says, “Her lawyers argued that while she was running a school for out-of-state students, the Black Law was unconstitutional because African-Americans were citizens and were guaranteed equal rights, including access to education, as provided to citizens by the Consitution.”
Crandall’s first trial ended in a deadlocked jury. However, she was found guilty after the second trial because the judge declared the Black Law was constitutional. He argued that Black Americans were not citizens, therefore, not guaranteed constitutional rights.
The third trial against the schoolmistress reversed the guilty verdict. Crandall was pardoned under the technicality of insufficient information for a conviction.
However, the judge failed to address her attorneys’ argument concerning Black Americans’ citizenship.
On September 9, 1834, a mob attacked and ransacked the Canterbury Female Boarding School while Crandall and the students were inside. The headmistress closed the academy out of fear for her student’s safety.
Later Legal Cases Citing Crandall’s
On March 6, 1857, the United States Supreme Court answered the question about African-American citizenship in Dred Scott v. Sandford. According to Britannica, the Justices ruled (7-2) that Scott, an enslaved person living in a territory where slavery was prohibited, was not entitled to his freedom.
SCOTUS ruled that African Americans were not and could never by U.S. citizens.
SCOTUS’s landmark decision cited the same ruling during Crandall’s second trial. Furthermore, the Justices determined Scott was not a citizen, which meant he was not entitled to his freedom.
Moreover, “African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States.”
They also ruled the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional. Their ruling outraged abolitionists.
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which defined African Americans as equal under the law, was ratified in 1868. Black men and women became citizens three years after slavery was abolished. Unfortunately, it took a civil war and the deaths of an estimated 618,222 Black and white individuals.
Black people have fought for basic citizenship rights since the country’s inception.
One hundred and twenty years after Crandall battled Connecticut citizens and the judicial system came the 1954 SCOTUS decision in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka.
The Justices’ decision resolved the constitutionality of “separate but equal” education for Black and white students. They referenced Crandall’s struggle.
Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka upheld the principles Crandall highly valued and pursued — educational equality.
However, Black citizens continue to fight an uphill battle for education, health, and employment equity.
Written by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
The New York Times: Honoring a Teacher Who Fought for Equality; By Tammy La Gorce
National Park Service: Our History Lesson: Prudence Crandall, Sarah Harris, and a Struggle for Black Women’s Education
Connecticut History.org: Prudence Crandall Fights for Equal Access to Education; By Diana Moraco
Britannica: Dred Scott Decision
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