Prudence Crandall

Prudence Crandall was a Quaker schoolteacher who in 1832 admitted Sarah Harris, a Black girl, to her female academy in Canterbury, Connecticut. After local opposition she converted the school in 1833 to one specifically for Black girls. The Connecticut legislature passed the "Black Law" (1833) criminalizing the schooling of out-of-state Black students. Crandall was arrested, briefly jailed in Brooklyn, CT in 1834, and tried three times; the case ended with charges dropped on technical grounds, but a mob attacked the school and forced its closure later that year. The Connecticut General Assembly issued an official apology and pension in 1886. Sister to Reuben Crandall.