What exactly is a prophet? We think of Old Testament men shouting words of doom and destruction unless the people of Israel repent. We might think of John the Baptist with his diet of ‘locusts and wild honey’. In the New Testament, Jesus aligns himself with the prophets in Luke 13:33. A prophet is someone who proclaims the word of God; and points out where society is failing to live up to God’s call for righteousness and compassion. There are still prophets among us who lift up their voices to say we must take action on climate change, on conditions for refugees (at home and in war torn areas), to end violence of all kinds, to insist ‘black lives matter’, the list could go on.
Prudence would have been at home among these prophetic voices. Crandall planted an important seed of classroom integration. Her actions were prophetic. As the Gospel for her day (September 3) notes, “…The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Luke 9:62–10:2) She responded to a need by being a laborer in the harvest. She rocked the society in which she lived by her actions, and even though her work seemed to only last a few years, the results are still being felt.
Prudence Crandall was born on September 3, 1803 in Rhode Island to Quaker parents. In 1820, the family moved to Canterbury, Connecticut. Five years later, at the age of 28, she and her sister Almira bought a house and started the Canterbury Female Boarding School for the daughters of Canterbury’s (white) elite. Prudence and Almira taught 40 students the subjects of geography, history, grammar, arithmetic, reading, and writing.
The school was successful, until Prudence started reading The Liberator about the problems faced by ‘people of color’. She stated that William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper opened her eyes, and she “contemplated for a while, the manner in which I might best serve the people of color”. Ultimately her response was to enroll Sarah Harris, daughter of a free African-American farmer near Canterbury, in the fall of 1832. Crandall’s simple action resulted in the first integrated classroom in the country. Remember this was 30 years before the Civil War!
Reaction was swift. Canterbury town leaders pressured Crandall to remove Sarah Harris. When she refused, white families removed their daughters. In a move reminiscent of Jesus statement, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.” (Matthew 10:14), Crandall decided to teach African-American girls for “$25 per quarter, one half paid in advance." On April 1, 1833, twenty African-American girls were enrolled. They came from Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia and Connecticut.
When she refused to close the school, town meetings were held "to devise and adopt such measures as would effectually avert the nuisance, or speedily abate it ..." A little over a month after the school opened, the Connecticut legislature passed the “Black Law” prohibiting a school from teaching African-Americans from outside the state without a town’s permission.
Crandall was arrested and jailed in July 1833, charged with violating the ‘Black Law’. Abolitionist supporters raised $10,000 for bail and legal fees. Crandall’s trial began August 23, 1833 and challenged the constitutionality of Black Law. The defense argued that free African-Americans were citizens of the state they lived in and should be considered citizens in Connecticut. The prosecution denied that African Americans were citizens at all. After a series of appeals, the Connecticut Supreme Court dismissed the case because the prosecution had never alleged Crandall established the school without permission of the civil authority of Canterbury. The Connecticut Black Law was repealed in 1838.
The school continued operation throughout Crandall’s legal trials, despite attacks on the school and students. However, when violence against the school increased, including an attempted fire, Crandall closed the school on September 10, 1834. It might seem that segregation and white power won. However, the seed was planted for future schools, and eventually for the Supreme Court trial of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.
After her husband died, Crandall went to live with her brother, Hezekiah, in Elk Falls, Kansas. A visitor in 1886, quoted Crandall, “My whole life has been one of opposition. I never could find anyone near me to agree with me…[I] searched for the truth whether it was in science, religion, or humanity…I don't want to die yet. I want to live long enough to see some of these reforms consummated.”
Her words sound a little like the Old Testament reading for September 3 from Habbakuk who moans, ”I hear, and I tremble within; my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, and my steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity…yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:16-19)
The state of Connecticut belatedly recognized her work in 1886. With the urging of Mark Twain, the legislature provided her with a $400 annual pension. She died four years later
The Collect for her day says, “God, the wellspring of justice and strength: We thank you for raising up in Prudence Crandall a belief in education and a resolute will to teach girls of every color and race, that alongside her they might take their place in working for the nurture and well-being of all society, undaunted by prejudice or adversity. Grant that we, following her example, may participate in the work of building up the human family in Christ, your Word and Wisdom; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
Who do you think is a prophet in our time?
How might you be a prophet in your home, workplace, church, community…?
In what way do you work for the ‘nurture and well-being of all society’?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence_Crandall
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/prudence-crandall
