A Whole-Souled Woman: Prudence Crandall and the Education of Black Women

In 1833, in Canterbury, Connecticut, Prudence Crandall, a white, Quaker-bred schoolmistress, opened the first private boarding school for black girls in New England. The village was outraged and tried to discourage Crandall with threats, boycotts, and vandalism. When these methods failed, the village elders persuaded the state legislature to pass the "Black Law," which made it a crime for blacks who were not residents of Connecticut to go to school there. Liable as the students' teacher, Crandall went to trial three times before a judge finally dismissed her case.