Prudence Crandall’s Legacy. Donald E. Williams

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      3 : Education for All

      Prudence Crandall told no one in Canterbury about her plans to teach black women at her school; she confided only in William Lloyd Garrison. “I do not dare tell any one of my neighbors anything about the contemplated change in my school,” she wrote to Garrison, “and I beg of you, sir, that you will not expose it to anyone; for if it was known, I have no reason to expect but it would ruin my present school.”¹ To emphasize the point she ended her letter by saying, “I must once more beg you not to expose this matter until we see how the case will be determined.”²

      There is no evidence that Crandall seriously considered reversing her decision to admit Sarah Harris; however, she clearly did not want to lose her school. Crandall decided to travel to Boston to meet Garrison and discuss the feasibility of recruiting black students. She told local supporters, including her pastor, Levi Kneeland, that she planned to visit schools and purchase supplies, and she asked for letters of introduction to those who could assist her in Boston. She told no one of her meeting with Garrison or her idea to change the mission of her school. Eleven days later on January 29, 1833, she took the stagecoach from Canterbury to Boston.

      The coach arrived at the Marlboro Hotel, a four-story building that served as the depot for many stagecoach routes.³ The Marlboro was the oldest hotel in Boston; Lafayette stayed there, as did John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster.⁴ James Barker, the manager of the hotel, received Prudence Crandall when she arrived. She gave Barker a note that he promptly delivered to Garrison: “The lady that wrote you a short time since would inform you that she is now in town, and should be very thankful if you would call at Mr. Barker’s Hotel and see her a few moments this evening at six o’clock.”⁵ Garrison was familiar with the Marlboro’s large hall for speeches and its several drawing rooms for smaller meetings.

      Garrison did not wish to see Crandall’s idea of a school for black women meet the same fate as a recently defeated proposal for a black college in New Haven, Connecticut. In June 1831, Simeon S. Jocelyn—a white minister of a black church—told Garrison of his plans to create a black college. Arthur Tappan agreed to purchase the land and raise funds for the new school. Garrison visited New Haven and wrote that the laws of the city were “salutary and protecting to all, without regard to complexion.”⁶ Garrison made those observations before the Nat Turner insurrection in August, when Turner led the slave uprising that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of blacks and whites. One month later, with fears of black rebellion and violence fanning northward, city residents at a town meeting voted overwhelmingly against the creation of a black college in New Haven, much to the discouragement of Garrison.⁷

      Prudence Crandall met with Garrison in one of the drawing rooms at the Marlboro that wintry Tuesday evening. Each was likely a surprise to the other. Garrison, the emphatic abolitionist in print, was reserved and polite in person. Crandall, who had come to Boston to explain why she wanted to risk her financial future for the benefit of black women, was an educator, not a political activist. They both were passionate about their work. Crandall described her plans for the new school. Garrison conveyed his concerns based on the events in New Haven. Garrison also came prepared to answer Crandall’s specific questions about recruiting students from cities in the Northeast. He said he could solicit support from those he knew in Boston, including Arnold Buffum, a Quaker abolitionist and one of the founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison also said he could provide information about black families in New York, New Haven, and Providence. Crandall offered to travel directly from Boston to Providence to meet with those whom Garrison knew in the black community and said she would pursue the other contacts as quickly as possible.

      Crandall told Garrison that when she returned to Canterbury she would seek out local supporters, including Daniel Packer, the mill owner and person responsible for the creation of the Packerville Baptist Church. They agreed that if the initial meetings and student recruitment efforts went well, Garrison would place an ad for her school in the Liberator and extensively promote her school. At the end of this extraordinary meeting, any lingering doubts on the part of Crandall or Garrison were replaced with determination. They agreed to work together to make the idea of a school for black women a reality.⁸

      With introductions to those in the black community in hand, Prudence Crandall took the stagecoach from Boston to Providence. She arrived on Friday night and sought out Elizabeth Hammond, a black woman whose husband had purchased a boarding house in the 1820s. After her husband died in 1826, Hammond managed the boarding house and the family’s financial affairs. Crandall visited Hammond at her home, where she met Hammond’s daughter, Ann Eliza. Mrs. Hammond invited some of her black friends and two white gentlemen, George W. Benson, a Providence wool merchant, and his younger brother, Henry E. Benson, the Providence agent for the Liberator, to meet with Crandall. Coincidentally, the Benson brothers were originally from Brooklyn, Connecticut, a town adjacent to Canterbury and a short horse ride from Prudence’s school. Crandall described the Bensons as “awake to the cause of humanity.” They promised to help her with her school.⁹

      The following morning Crandall returned to see Mrs. Hammond, who took Crandall to meet three colored families. The meetings went well, and Crandall told Garrison, “They seemed to feel much for the education of their children, and I think I shall be able to obtain six scholars from Providence.”¹⁰ Henry Benson gave Garrison a positive report concerning Crandall’s visit. “The lady who was at your office last week to see about a school for colored females, passed through here Friday,” Benson wrote. “She is, I should think, exactly the one for that purpose, and I hope she may meet with perfect success.”¹¹

      Crandall returned to Canterbury late in the evening on Saturday, February 9, 1833. On Monday she met with Daniel Packer. She told Packer about her trip to Boston and how she intended to transform her school—to change the “white scholars for colored ones.” If Packer had doubts about the wisdom of creating a school for black women, he did not say so directly. He called her idea “praiseworthy,” but also said it likely would ruin her financially. “He is fearful that I cannot be supplied with scholars at the close of one year,” Crandall wrote to Garrison, “and therefore he thinks I shall injure myself in the undertaking.”¹²

      Crandall believed the parents of her students would soon start withdrawing their daughters from her school. She prepared to travel once again, to New York City. Garrison promised to write to his friends in New York and prepare them for her visit. As of February 12, she had not received word from Garrison and wrote to remind him, “If you have not yet sent on to New York the information you intend, I would thank you if you would do it immediately, for I am expecting to take the next boat for New York, and shall be in the city early on Friday morning.”¹³

      Crandall spurred Garrison into action as she worked tirelessly to assemble the student enrollment necessary for success. She expected to make the final decision about her new school after her trip to New York City. “When I return from N.Y., I think I shall be able to lay the subject before the public,” she told Garrison.¹⁴ She arrived in New York on Friday, February 15, and met with a number of black ministers who supported Garrison, including Peter Williams, the pastor of the St. Phillips Episcopal Church in Harlem and the first black Episcopal minister in the United States.¹⁵ Williams spoke out often against slavery and discrimination. “We are natives of this country; we ask only to be treated as well as foreigners,” Williams said. “Not a few of our fathers suffered and bled to purchase its independence; we ask only to be treated as well as those who fought against it. We have toiled to cultivate it, and to raise it to its present prosperous condition; we ask only to share equal privileges with those who come from distant lands to enjoy the fruits of our labor.”¹⁶

      Crandall met other ministers who supported Garrison. They included Samuel C. Cornish, who established the First Colored Presbyterian Church in 1822 and was “one of the leading Negro СКАЧАТЬ