Generation No. 7
4705. Prudence(7) CRANDALL (Pardon6, Christopher5, James W.4, Joseph3, Joseph2, John1) born September 03, 1803 in Rhode Island; died January 28, 1890 in Elk Falls, Elk County, KS. She married Calvin Philleo; died 1874.
Notes for Prudence Crandall:
Prudence Crandall was born in Rhode Island on 3rd September, 1803. After being educated at a Society of Friends school in Plainfield, Connecticut, Crandall established her own private academy for girls at Canterbury.
The school was a great success until she decided to admit a black girl. When Crandall, a committed Quaker, refused to change her policy of educating black and white students together, parents began taking their children away from the school. With the support of William Lloyd Garrison and the Anti-Slavery Society, in March 1833, Crandall opened a school for black girls in Canterbury.
Local people were furious at Crandall's actions and attempts were made to prevent the school receiving essential supplies. The school continued and began to attract girls from Boston and Philadelphia. The local authorities then began using a vagrancy law against these students. These girls could now be given ten lashes of the whip for attending the school.
In 1834 Connecticut passed a law making it illegal to provide a free education for black students. When Crandall refused to obey the law she was arrested and imprisoned. Crandall was convicted but won the case on appeal. When news of the court decision reached Canterbury, a white mob attacked the school and threatened the lives of Crandall and her students. Afraid that the children would be killed or badly injured, Crandall decided to close her school down.
In September 1834 Crandall moved to Illinois where she married Calvin Philleo, a Baptist clergyman. Prudence Crandall died in Elk Falls, Kansas, on 28th January, 1890.
Prudence Crandall was the daughter of Quaker parents who became a symbol in the cause of Negro education and abolitionism. In 1831, she opened the Canterbury Female Boarding School at the request of local citizens. A year later she admitted Sarah Harris (1815-1879), the daughter of a prosperous Negro farmer, who had completed the district school and wished to train to be a teacher. There was an explosive reaction in the community, forcing the school to close. Crandall, however, was determined to do what she could "to benefit the people of color" and began to recruit pupils among middle-class Negro families throughout the Northeast for the first boarding and teacher training school for black young women. The town of Canterbury did everything it could to block her efforts, finally passing a law barring the establishment of any school that taught out-of-state Negroes and prohibiting the teaching of "any colored people...not inhabitants" of Connecticut. Crandall was arrested under the terms of this act, and her case became a "cause célèbre" throughout the country. She was convicted in a second trial which, was later overturned on a technicality. Townspeople continued to vandalize the school. After a mob assault in 1834, Crandall gave up her fight and later moved to Illinois with her husband, the Rev. Calvin Philleo, an abolitionist and Baptist minister. There she conducted a school in her home and aided the movement for women's rights. After her husband's death in 1874, she moved to Elk Falls, Kansas, where she died of influenza. A somewhat lonely figure in later life, she continued her interest in the reform movements of her day. The Connecticut legislature did penance for its earlier prosecution of Crandall by granting her a small pension in 1886. Arguments from her trials were used in the U.S. Supreme Court's school desegregation decision of 1954.
Prudence Crandall
Kansas Historical Society Marker on US 160 on the west edge of Elk Falls, KS
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.
Erected by Kansas Historical Society & Kansas Department of Transportation. At the same roadside park is another marker:
The State of Connecticut proudly joins the State of Kansas in honoring the lifetime achievements of Prudence Crandall, educator and champion of human rights. Crandall's courage and determination serve as examples to all who face seemingly insurmountable odds and to those who refuse to be limited by social conventions. To this day, her efforts to promote equality in education remains unequaled.
The building which housed Crandall's academy in Canterbury, Connecticut opened as a museum in 1984 and is administered by the Connecticut Historical Commission. The museum's national importance was recognized in 1991 when it was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U. S. Department of the Interior.
This plaque was made possible through the generous donations of citizens of the State of Connecticut.
On October 1, 1995, by an act of the General Assembly, Prudence Crandall became Connecticut's State Heroine.
In 1833, Prudence Crandall established the first academy for African-American women in New England. During its 18 months of operation, Crandall and her students faced hardships and violence. She was placed on trial twice for breaking a law specifically designed to prevent the school from operating. In the fall of 1834, although the charges against her were dismissed, the school was closed.
Prudence Crandall demonstrated great courage and moral strength by taking a stand against prejudice. In 1886 the legislature honored her with an annual pension of $400.00.
The Prudence Crandall House is a National Historic Landmark located at the intersection of 14 and 169 in Canterbury. It is operated by the Connecticut Historical Commission.
Prudence Crandall: Burial: Elk Falls Cemetery