Connecticut Stories 4. Education

Even in a free state, race prejudice was dangerously strong.

The idea that ending slavery would also end racial prejudice received a violent refutation in the experience of Prudence Crandall of Canterbury and her “school for colored misses.” The local citizenry attacked not only her school but the very notion that young black women were deserving of and receptive to higher education. Crandall had the support of prominent abolitionists in her effort to desegregate higher learning for women, but she didn’t have the support of her town and the legal system. Even in a state with almost no people held in slavery, prejudice proved its power.