Attorney and justice of the peace Rufus Adams, attorney Daniel Frost Jr., Dr. Andrew Harris, and merchant Richard Fenner agreed to the task of “persuading her, if possible, to give up the project.”40 One of Crandall’s opponents later wrote that the men made their case for Miss Crandall to reconsider her actions with great respect and decorum.41
Crandall did not view the men and their treatment of her as either respectful or polite. Immediately after they left her home, she wrote that they had focused on “what shall be done to destroy the school.”42 They told Crandall they would make sure her school failed if she did not reverse her decision.43 She rejected their threats and brought the meeting to a close. Crandall managed to conceal her anxiety; the men conceded that their threats failed to “produce any visible effect.”44 As they left, however, Crandall realized she faced powerful opponents. Her initial prediction from the previous week—that any opposition to her school would quickly fade away—now changed dramatically.
As soon as the men left, Crandall wrote to Garrison. She asked him to come quickly to Canterbury and bring Arnold Buffum to support her. She then wrote to Simeon Jocelyn and told him about the threats the men had made. They will “do everything in their power to destroy my undertaking,” Crandall said.45 She asked Jocelyn to intercede with Arthur Tappan and persuade him to come to Canterbury. Tappan’s presence “would alleviate the feelings of many,” Crandall said.46 She closed by asking Jocelyn for help and advice, and twice asked him to write to her “IMMEDIATELY.”47
The following day, Wednesday, February 27, 1833, word of Crandall’s plan for her school and the opposition of local town fathers reached Samuel May in Brooklyn, Connecticut. “Although a stranger, I addressed a letter to her, assuring her of my sympathy,” May said, “and of my readiness to help her all in my power.”48 May noted that the prominent location of her schoolhouse—in the center of the town at the intersection of two main roads—likely contributed to the controversy.
“Perhaps your removal to some more retired situation would at once allay the violence of your opponents,” May wrote, “and be more favorable to your pupils, who would not be so exposed to insult as they might be where you now are.”49 He told Crandall that Canterbury officials had scheduled a town meeting regarding the school, and if she wished, he would attend on her behalf.50 May’s offer was significant—as a woman Crandall could not speak at a town meeting or vote on any motions. May’s unsolicited letter encouraged Crandall, and she sent a quick response begging him to come to Canterbury.51
As Crandall worked furiously to assemble those who could defend her, William Lloyd Garrison prepared to leave on a trip to England in April. He had high expectations and hoped “the enterprise will give dignity to the abolition cause in this country … and secure the patronage and applause of abolitionists in Great Britain.”52 Garrison expected his journey to last for at least six months and inquired among his friends for someone to serve as guest editor for the Liberator.
In Boston, Maria Stewart continued writing and speaking out. On the evening of February 27, 1833, she delivered a “Lecture on African Rights and Liberty” to an audience of men and women at the African Masonic Hall in Boston. “Talk, without effort, is nothing,” Stewart said. “We have performed the labor, they have received the profits; we have planted the vines, they have eaten the fruits … They say that we are not capable of becoming like white men, and that we can never rise to respectability in this country. They would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through. African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States. …”53
Stewart asked black men and women, but especially black men, to fight harder for their rights. “Show me our fearless and brave, our noble and gallant ones,” she said. “You are abundantly capable, gentlemen, of making yourselves men of distinction; and this gross neglect, on your part, causes my blood to boil within me.”54 Years later, William Cooper Nell remembered the obstacles she faced: “Maria W. Stewart—fired with a holy zeal to speak her sentiments on the improvement of colored Americans, encountered an opposition even from her Boston circle of friends, that would have dampened the ardor of most women.”55
As the month of February ended, Prudence Crandall anxiously waited to hear from William Lloyd Garrison, Simeon S. Jocelyn, and Samuel May. She also wanted Arnold Buffum and Arthur Tappan to help defend her school. When the committee of town fathers decided to pay Crandall a second visit, however, she again faced her opponents alone.
On Friday, March 1, 1833, Rufus Adams, Daniel Frost, Dr. Andrew Harris, and Richard Fenner returned to Crandall’s schoolhouse. At this meeting, attorney Frost led the discussion with Crandall, and “every argumentative effort was made to convince her of the impropriety and injustice of her proposed measure.”56 Frost tried new tactics to pressure her to abandon the proposed school for black women. He ignored Crandall’s statements regarding the importance of education and her desire to “benefit the people of color.” Instead, Frost stressed “the danger of the leveling principles.”57 What Frost meant by “leveling principles” was not the idea of providing equal opportunity for blacks in education. Frost told Crandall that he meant to use a more sensational argument. “The danger” he meant to emphasize was “intermarriage between whites and blacks.”58
The four men, who later recalled the “kind and affecting manner” in which Frost addressed Crandall, made it clear that they intended to argue to the public that her school promoted “the amalgamation of the whites and blacks.”59 Crandall allegedly responded to Frost’s assertion by pointing out that “Moses had a black wife.”60 The source of the “Moses” quote may well have been Crandall herself, but during the controversy it was cited only in accounts that were hostile to her and for the purpose of changing the subject from equality in education to “amalgamation” and interracial marriage. Many years later, historian Ellen D. Larned included the “Moses” quote in her account of Crandall’s school, after she had corresponded with Crandall.
Crandall likely delivered the thoughtful “Moses” retort—she never denied it—and Frost and his committee made sure it was widely publicized as it helped them in their goal of discrediting the school. Fanning the flames of racial fear and prejudice by promoting the specter of “amalgamation” and interracial marriage promised to transform an already divisive issue into a broader panic. As a local publication soon confirmed, the inference that Crandall’s opponents promoted through repeating the “Moses had a black wife” quote was irresistible for local newspapers.
“Her reply to the committee seems to have been made in justification of the course she adopted,” one published account noted. “The public must decide whether the amalgamation of the whites and blacks is a profitable or safe doctrine.”61 Another reference to the “Moses” quote appeared in the Norwich Republican, submitted by Andrew T. Judson. “When she justified her proceedings and principles on the ground that Moses married a ‘colored woman,’ it was suggested that she might as well advocate polygamy now, because it was lawful in the days of antiquity.”62 The controversy escalated to a point where Crandall replied publicly to deny that her school promoted interracial marriage.63
After their second meeting, Frost and his companions left Crandall’s school believing they had made progress toward changing her mind and acknowledged that “she had gone on with a firmness of design, and a decision of action, worthy the holiest cause.”64 Crandall did not, however, yield to the committee’s request that she abandon her idea of an academy for black women. On the next day, March 2nd, an issue of the Liberator appeared containing both an article and an advertisement promoting Crandall’s “High School for Young Colored Ladies and Misses.”65 The advertisement contained Crandall’s thanks to those who had previously patronized her
