forbidden fruit, excerpt...

"Prudence Crandall was twenty-seven when residents of Canterbury invited her to move there from Rhode Island in 1831 and start a boarding school for their daughters. Her face was a curious blend of hard and soft, strong and yielding --soft, curved lips, strong chin , wide lustrous eyes and heavy eyebrows. The steely part of her nature won out. Her school opened in November 1831 and became an immediate success . However , after Crandall began reading the 'Liberator,' William Lloyd Garrison 's uncompromising antislavery newspaper , she decided she should help educate blacks. "In January 1833, a black girl named Sarah Harris, daughter of an industrious black farmer, entered Crandall 's boarding school. Harris wanted enough education to become a teacher herself . Slavery was still alive in Connecticut in 1833, though the 1784 gradual emancipation act provided that black and mulatto children born after March 1 of that year would become free at age twenty-five . In 1797, another bill reduced the age of freedom to twenty-one. However, Connecticut did not completely abolish slavery until 1848. "The moment Sarah Harris enrolled in Prudence Crandall 's school, the citizens of Canterbury showed their true colors . Some parents took their daughters home, no doubt believing Crandall would soon back down. Instead , she recruited other black students and, in February 1833, dismissed her remaining white students to open a school for 'young ladies and little misses of color.' That 's when the stew really hit the stove. "Under pressure from Canterbury 's leaders, the state legislature passed Connecticut 's so-called black law on May 24, 1833, just six weeks after Crandall 's school reopened . The law banned private schools for nonresident blacks. Crandall was arrested , tried and convicted of breaking this new law; however, the Connecticut Supreme Court threw out her conviction on a technicality . Crandall wanted to press on, but in September 1834 her school was set on fire. The fire was extinguished quickly, but the town's rage still flamed. Men armed with crowbars and clubs smashed the school's windows and threatened students. Crandall who had married a preacher named Calvin Philleo, finally closed her school and shelved her dreams. After her husband 's death in 1874, she moved to Kansas, where she had a brother named Hezekiah. In 1886, the Connecticut state legislature granted her a small pension. She was then eighty-two. In 1995, Connecticut, which had once gone so far as to forbid anyone from wearing garments that did not match their place in society , finally recognized Prudence Crandall 's courage. She became Connecticut 's official State Heroine." P. 178-179, "The School Teacher Had to Duck Dead Cats," FORBIDDEN FRUIT: LOVE STORIES FROM THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Betty DeRamus (2006)