Prudence Crandall’s Life Of Courage

In celebration of Black History Month, Newtown Historical Society will present a program on the life of Prudence Crandall.

The program will be offered on Monday, February 13, beginning at 7:30 pm, in the community room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street (Route 25).

“Prudence Crandall, Voice of Conviction” will be presented by Donna Dufresne as a one-person play interpreting the life of Crandall as Connecticut’s state heroine.

Prudence Crandall was an intelligent, unassuming young woman who opened an academy for the wealthy young ladies of Canterbury and Plainfield in 1831. Two years later, bothered by the public reaction to her accepting a black girl to the school, she closed at the end of the term, and reopened as a school for “Young Missus of color” in 1831, the first such school in New England.

The ensuing public outcry would have done pride to any Southern segregationist of the 1950s and 1960s. Today it is hard to imagine the depth of antiblack feeling emanating from a small town in a state later to be counted strongly abolitionist, but Ms Crandall felt the brunt of it.

She received much support from the growing abolition movement across the nation and even internationally, but had few local supporters. Her opponents successfully lobbied for a state law to prohibit educating “blacks from out of district and out of state,” but Ms Crandall was not intimidated and continued her efforts.

She was arrested for continuing her now prohibited academy, and had to face trial three times before being acquitted on the technicality that her academy preceded the law and thus she could not be convicted under it.

The outcome pleased neither side. Ms Crandall and her supporters had hoped to set a precedent for the civil rights of African Americans.

The case’s importance, however, is seen in the fact that it was cited more than 100 years later in the seminal Brown vs Topeka Board of Education of 1954, which finally declared segregated schools to be illegal.

Donna Dufresne is a fifth grade teacher in Pomfret. She has long used character portrayal as a segue to introduce new units in her classroom.

She has offered workshops in the technique at teacher’s conferences, including the National Council for Social Studies Supervisors, and has presented a workshop on using archeology in the classroom to UConn’s Conference for Gifted and Talented.

In addition to her teaching, Ms Dufresne is an accomplished singer/songwriter, performing her work regularly throughout Connecticut and New England. She has been performing as Prudence Crandall for more than a decade.

Historical society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the program.

For further information, leave a message on Newtown Historical Society’s answering machine, at 426-5937.