Prudence Crandall In The 1800's

In the 1800’s, African-Americans were highly discriminated against. There were still many blacks that worked for their white masters as slaves. Most women did not receive education. African-Americans were given a free education until they finished elementary school. Prudence Crandall’s greatest accomplishment was founding the first school for African-American girls. By doing this, she impacted the lives of the African-American girls who attended her school, the people of Canterbury, Connecticut, and the school system.
Crandall’s background as a Quaker and abolitionist inspired her to open a school for African-American girls. She was raised as a Quaker, in which she was taught to believe that all people should have an education, regardless
Before it was re-opened for African-American girls, Crandall had been successfully running her boarding school for two years. Because of its excellent schooling, the school was well known, and very expensive. The school was highly ranked and many of Canterbury’s young women attended. When Sarah Harris enrolled, the parents of the girls were outraged. Crandall worked very hard when her school was turned into one for African-Americans. The girls were taught grammar, mathematics, history, science, french, and music. Word spread in a popular newspaper for abolitionists, in which the author, William L. Garrison informs the public the Prudence Crandall was running a school “for the reception of young ladies and littles misses of color”(________) By April 1, 1833, there were twenty African-American girls attending the school, most of whom were from Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. Both the school and Crandall were then famous for their uncommon situation. Many people supported Crandall and even became abolitionists because of her. Many people supported her because blacks received a free education until they finished elementary school, and were rarely permitted to be educated beyond fifth grade. This put an entirely new perspective on the school system of the early 1800’s. Prudence Crandall paved the path to desegregation in public schools and gave both black and white girls and extraordinary