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Prudence Crandall’s Legacy
A DRIFTLESS CONNECTICUT SERIES BOOK
This book is a 2014 selection in the Driftless Connecticut Series, for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic or written by a Connecticut author.
Prudence Crandall’s Legacy
The Fight for Equality in the 1830s, Dred Scott, and Brown v. Board of Education
DONALD E. WILLIAMS JR.
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, CT 06459
© 2014 Donald E. Williams Jr.
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Richard Hendel
Typeset in Galliard and Klavika by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets theirminimum requirement for recycled paper.
The Driftless Connecticut Series is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, Donald E.
Prudence Crandall’s legacy: the fight for equality in the 1930s, Dred Scott, and Brown v. Board of Education / Donald E. Williams Jr.
pages cm—(A Driftless Connecticut series book)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8195-7470-1 (cloth: alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-0-8195-7471-8 (ebook)
1. Crandall, Prudence, 1803–1890. 2. Women teachers—Connecticut—Biography. 3. Women teachers—Illinois—Biography. 4. Discrimination in education—Law and legislation—Connecticut. 5. School integration—Connecticut—History. I. Title.
LA2317.C73W55 2014
371.100922—dc23
[B] 2013046113
5 4 3 2 1
Cover illustration: Francis Alexander, portrait of Prudence Crandall. Oil painting, #6953. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
To three womenwho inspire andmake a difference:my wife, Laura,my daughter, Nina,and my mother,Donna
CONTENTS
PREFACE
Since the founding of our country, many Americans have engaged in the legal and societal struggle to free the United States from the legacy of slavery, segregation, and racial prejudice. Prudence Crandall’s Legacy views that struggle from the perspective of a nineteenth-century Connecticut schoolteacher and her allies. Prudence Crandall’s story of creating a school for black women in the 1830s, while well known in its day, is often neglected compared with the efforts of other advocates and political leaders of both sexes and all races who have contributed greatly to the fight for equality.
Crandall’s activism had an enduring impact. Of particular importance is the legal case of Crandall v. State, the first full-throated civil rights case in U.S. history. This book includes a detailed accounting and review of three separate legal proceedings directed against Prudence Crandall as a result of the discriminatory “Black Law” passed by the Connecticut legislature in reaction to Crandall’s school, culminating in an appeal to the Connecticut State Supreme Court in 1834. Indeed, the Crandall case helped influence the outcome of two of the most fateful U.S. Supreme Court decisions: Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857 and, nearly a century later, Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Crandall’s legal legacy also includes the prosecution of her brother, Reuben Crandall, for sedition and the judicial history of the Amistad case, presided over by Federal District Court Judge Andrew Judson, who earlier was Crandall’s chief antagonist and prosecutor.
The intent here is not to magnify Crandall’s contributions beyond their significance, but rather to place her achievements into proper context regarding the fight for equality generally and educational equality specifically. In order to better understand Crandall’s work and influence, I have presented her establishment of a working school for black women and subsequent legal battles within the context of her life story and the experiences of key allies, in particular, William Lloyd Garrison. I have included not only facts related to their public efforts, but also details regarding their families and personal lives in an effort to understand more fully their accomplishments and humanity. In following the trajectory of Crandall’s influence on civil rights law through Dred Scott and Brown v. Board of Education, I have included the details of Crandall’s life after the closure of her school as well as those who directly aided her; all of those who worked with Crandall continued in activist