Yankees and Confederates

[kdfrawg]

It took some brave people to get slavery stopped. It seems that Prudence was one of them. I have the utmost respect for Prudence and all of the people that will stand up against all things that are just plain wrong.

[Janet Harrington]

 Prudence Crandall 
Kansas Historical Society marker on US 160 on the west edge of Elk Falls, KS

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In 1831, Prudence Crandall, educator, emancipator, and human rights advocate, established a school which in 1833, became the first Black female academy in New England at Canterbury, Connecticut. This later action resulted in her arrest and imprisonment for violating the "Black Law."

Although she was later released on a technicality, the school was forced to close after being harassed and attacked by a mob. She moved with her husband Reverend Calvin Philleo to Illinois.

After her husband died in 1874, she and her brother moved to a farm near Elk Falls. Prudence taught throughout her long life and was an outspoken champion for equality of education and the rights of women. In 1886, supported by Mark Twain and others, an annuity was granted to her by the Connecticut Legislature. She purchased a house in Elk Falls where she died January 27, 1890.

Over a hundred years later, legal arguments used by her 1834 trial attorney were submitted to the Supreme Court during their consideration of the historic civil rights case of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education.
 
This is what is on the memorial stone.

[Janet Harrington]

   The Prudence Crandall Museum
Junction Routes 169 & 14
Canterbury, CT 06331
(860) 546 9916
Kazimiera Kozlowski, Museum Curator

Museum Hours:
Wednesday - Sunday - . 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Closed December 15th to January 31
Admission charged.


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The site of New England's first academy for black girls established by Prudence Crandall, 1833-1834. A National Historic Landmark.

Through permanent and changing exhibits a variety of themes are explored at the museum, including Prudence Crandall, black and women's history and local history. "Prudence Crandall Day," held annually the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, offers children's games, crafts demonstrations and sales, entertainment and refreshments.

The museum also includes three period-rooms, a small research library for in-house study (by appointment only) and a gift shop.


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In the summer of 1831, Prudence Crandall (born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, 1803) was asked by a group of Canterbury citizens if she would consent to establishing a private academy to instruct local girls and boys. With the purchase of the Luther Paine house (built circa 1805) located on the Canterbury Green, Crandall was able to open the academy in January of 1832, having the complete support and encouragement of the community. Areas of study included reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, history, moral philosophy, chemistry and astronomy. Tuition was $25.00 per quarter. Public sentiment shifted dramatically, however, when Sarah Harris, a twenty-year old black woman, was admitted to the school in the fall of 1832. Crandall lost much support from the community, and was forced to dismiss those students not already withdrawn by their parents. On April 1, 1833, after conferring with William Lloyd Garrison and other staunch Abolitionists, Crandall reopened the school for the purpose of instructing "young ladies and little misses of color," thus establishing the first academy for black girls in New England.

In response, on May 24, 1833, the General Assembly in Hartford passed the infamous "Black Law" which made it illegal to establish any school or at academy for the instruction of "colored persons who are not inhabitants of this State." (The law was repealed in 1838). In breaking this law, Crandall was arrested, imprisoned overnight in the Brooklyn, Connecticut jail, and endured three court trials. Due to a legal technicality the case was eventually dismissed in July of 1834.

Opinions were not confined to the courtroom, however, and the academy's inhabitants were harassed unmercifully throughout this period of turmoil. The students were jeered at and the building was pelted with stones, eggs, and mud. In January 1834, an unsuccessful attempt was made to set the building on fire. In spite of this, the academy remained open until the night of September 9, 1834. That evening a mob of local residents attacked the academy, breaking some ninety window panes. Fearing for the physical safety of the students, Prudence regretfully decided to close the school. She and her husband, Rev. Calvin Phileo (they were married August 12, 1834), left Canterbury soon afterwards and traveled to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and later to Illinois, where Calvin died in 1874. In 1877, Prudence and her brother Hezekiah bought property in Elk Falls, Kansas, where they spent their remaining years. Prudence Crandall Phileo taught throughout her long life, never failing in her efforts to bring knowledge to all who had the desire to learn.

In 1886, an annuity was initiated in Canterbury on Crandall's behalf, receiving support from such notable Connecticut residents as Mark Twain. In April of that same year, the Connecticut Legislature granted Prudence $400 per year, a sum she received until her death in 1890, at the age of 87.

In reviewing the events which took place at the Crandall Academy, it must be remembered that this was not a singular incident, but rather a local reaction caused by feelings of racism which pervaded American society during this period of our nation's history. Such occurrences were reported nationwide, and were not restricted either to the town of Canterbury or the State of Connecticut.

Taken from http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/forum/links/others/prudence.crandall.html

[kdfrawg]

Thank you, Janet.

That was interesting.

[kdfrawg]

In a similar vein, I found this to be interesting. It is on the "to-do" list for my GenuineKansas site.

http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/kscoll/lochist/quindaro/Quindaro.htm

I looked at the area in Google Earth, and you can still see some of the old buildings among the vegetation that has regrown on the riverbank where Quindaro used to be.

[flo]

Waldo, toured Bent's Fort a few years ago.  You mentioned that the female slave was the cook and believe me I seen where and with what she had to cook.  Very primative and the living quarters were equally primative.  Come to think of it, the "dining room" for the uppity ups wasn't all that spactacular.

[W. Gray]

Travelers could pay $1 to stay at the fort. Sleeping accommodations were just a community room where they could throw their gear and lie down. That $1, though seems pretty steep, but, it apparently beat sleeping outside the walls in Indian country.


Lincoln is generally given credit for freeing the slaves, but he did no such thing.

He issued a proclamation in 1863 saying slaves in the south were free men. The south laughed.

For political reasons, he could not and did not declare slaves in the north as free.

[Jo McDonald]

 

I still like to hang my fresh washed laundry on the clothes line.




BRINGS BACK MEMORIES!

The clothesline....a dead give away. Do the kids today even know
what a clothesline is?

For all of us that are older, this will really bring memories.
For those of you who are younger, it will add some thoughts.

THE BASIC RULES

1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes.
Walk the length of each line with a damp cloth around the line.

2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order and always
hang whites with whites and hang them first.

3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders, always by the tail.
What Would the neighbors think


CLOTHESLINES

A clothesline was a news forecast
To neighbors passing by.
There were no secrets you could keep
When clothes were hung to dry.

It also was a friendly link
For neighbors always knew
If company had stopped by
To spend a night or two.

For then you'd see the fancy sheets
And towels upon the line;
You'd see the company table cloths
With intricate design.

The line announced a baby's birth
To folks who lived inside
As brand new infant clothes were hung
So carefully with pride.

The ages of the children could
So readily be known
By watching how the sizes changed
You'd know how much they'd grown.

It also told when illness struck,
As extra sheets were hung;
Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,
Haphazardly were strung.

It said, "Gone on vacation now"
When lines hung limp and bare.
It told, "We're back!" when full lines sagged
With not an inch to spare.

New folks in town were scorned upon
If wash was dingy gray,
As neighbors raised their brows,
And looked the other way..

But clotheslines now are of the past
For dryers make work less.
Now what goes on inside a home
Is anybody's guess.

I really miss that way of life.
It was a friendly sign
When neig hbors knew each other best
By what hung on the line!

Have a great day.

[frawin]

I remember hanging clothes to dry very well.  I didn't have a dryer until several years after we were married.  The clothes always smell so clean and good, but hanging them  out in the winter time wasn't too much fun!
mlw

[kdfrawg]

I can remember rapidly changing Nebraska weather and frozen clothes.