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[ 98 ] T he ongoing acts of vandalism against Prudence Crandall’s school took a more serious turn in July 1833. Almira Crandall managed the school as Prudence continued to recuperate from the sickness she suffered in the wake of her arrest. After a particularly long day, Almira sent the students to bed, paused to rest in the first-floor parlor room, and then went upstairs. Moments later a crash on the first floor resounded throughout the school. Almira rushed downstairs to investigate—an enormous impact had shattered the panes in the parlor window , and shards of broken glass covered the floor. Almira saw a rock in the middle of the floor “about the size of my hand and about an inch and a half in thickness.”1 The students came downstairs to see what happened; they were frightened but relieved that no one was hurt. Later that night Almira heard a loud thud of a rock hitting the clapboard wall of the schoolhouse. The following morning, Almira checked the outside of the school and noticed stains and dents from eggs and rocks that had smashed against the front of the school.2 An anonymous author published a fresh attack on Prudence Crandall in the Windham County Advertiser in July. “In her reckless disregard of the rights and feelings of all her neighbors, in her obstinate adherence to her plan of defiance of the entreaties of her friends and of the laws of the land, in her attempts to excite public sympathy by ridiculously spending a night in prison without the smallest necessity of it, she has stepped out of the hallowed precincts of female propriety . . .With all her complaints of persecution , I suspect she is pleased with the sudden notoriety she has gained.”3 The writer claimed he did not live in Canterbury and had no other interest in the school; however, the 6 : Sanctuary Denied Sanctuary Denied [ 99 ] writer’s prose and point of view was consistent with that of Andrew Judson , the leader of the local colonization society. “Let all things be done decently and in order,” the writer said. “If such an institution is to be established, let it be done with ultimate reference to the removal of the pupils to Africa. Here, and here only, can they stand on the proud eminence of freedom and equality.”4 Oliver Johnson was sufficiently impressed with the irony of the author’s assertion—true freedom and equality for blacks could exist only in Africa and not in the United States—that he reprinted the letter in its entirety in the Liberator.5 The vast majority of newspapers in Connecticut and elsewhere continued to express hostility toward Crandall and the abolitionists who supported her. The Norwich Courier called Crandall’s actions “very objectionable , and no friend we have met with can furnish any justification.”6 The editors of the Hartford Times accused Crandall’s supporters of “fraudulent misrepresentation” in their criticism of the Black Law and Crandall’s arrest.7 The Times took aim at “Tappan with his purse—Garrison with his insane projects—and zealots who are devoted to the welfare of Heathen abroad and Negroes and Indians at home.”8 Crandall and her abolitionist friends conspired to destroy the harmony of Canterbury, the Times said, “regardless of the feelings of those who happened to be white.”9 The New Hampshire Patriot described Crandall as a “fanatic old maid” who “knew what the law was but she wished to be considered a martyr.”10 The editors of the Patriot said Crandall was arrested “not exactly for teaching young negroes to read, but for breaking the law,”11 and called her night in jail “a mere make-believe imprisonment.”12 The editors of the New Haven Register agreed with Crandall’s opponents who said that town officials should be allowed to prohibit “a school of imported negroes . . . Should two or three mad persons have more power than the whole of the inhabitants of a town?”13 Samuel May wrote to Arthur Tappan to tell him of the new developments . He described the difficulties the school faced in the wake of Crandall ’s imprisonment, including the increased vandalism and hostile press coverage. Despite the success of publicizing Crandall’s night in jail, May said “adversaries wielded several newspaper presses incessantly against Miss Crandall’s school, and the others would not venture to defend it.”14 The articles “teemed with the grossest misrepresentations, and the vilest insinuations against Miss Crandall, her pupils...

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