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PRUDENCE CRANDALL35 PRUDENCE CRANDALL AND THE CANTERBURY EXPERIMENT By Alfred Thurston Child, Jr. Exactly one hundred years ago a slight young schoolmistress named Prudence Crandall faced a delegation of angry neighbors and stoutly refused to close a school which she had opened for Negro girls. This decision—bravely made and still more bravely maintained—cost her dear. Friends turned against her. Her pupils were insulted and intimidated. An economic boycott was directed against her school. And finally, a deliberate attempt was made to destroy the school. The courage and ingenuity with which she met each difficulty won for her the sympathy of hundreds of men and women throughout the United States and England —a sympathy which we feel again today as we live over with her the events of those trying, troubled months. On December 19, 1799, two young Friends, Pardon Crandall and Esther Carpenter, who were to become the parents of Prudence Crandall, stood up before the meeting at Hopkinton,1 Rhode Island, and repeated with dignity the simple formula which for over two hundred years has united Friends in marriage.2 Pardon Crandall was a member of an old and distinguished New England family. In 1651, a certain John Crandall was arrested at Boston for " witnessing [to] the truth of baptising believers only." 3 A year later he was one of the founders of the colony of Westerly, Rhode Island. And from him sprang a long line of descendants, many of whom filled positions of high responsibility .4 The Carpenters were originally a Massachusetts family who for over a century had been active in the public life of the little village 1 Hopkinton is situated about thirty-five miles southwest of Providence. Originally a part of Westerly, it was incorporated as a separate township in 1757. The governor of the Colony of Rhode Island at that time was Stephen Hopkins, and it was from him that the town takes its name. In 1830 the population numbered 1,777. In 1930 this number had increased to 2,823. See Thomas W. Bicknell, The History of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, New York 1920, vol. iii, and John Hayward, The New England Gazetteer, Boston 1839. 2 James N. Arnold, Vital Record of Rhode Island, Providence, R. L, 1894, vol. v, Hopkinton, p. 13. 3 The Narragansett Historical Register, Hamilton, R. L, vol. ? (1886). p. 309. 4 Ibid., ii (1883), p. 35. 36 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION of Rehoboth.5 Their common ancestor was a William Carpenter, one of the original proprietors of the village, who is supposed to have been a close friend and relative by marriage of Governor Bradford of Plymouth.6 One of William Carpenter's descendants was given the name of Hezekiah. Hezekiah Carpenter was born and brought up at Rehoboth, but left there as a young man to find better opportunities to ply his combined trade of carpenter and farmer.7 He must have been an industrious, efficient, and thrifty workman for by 1778 (circa) he had saved sufficient money to buy up a large tract of land near Hopkinton, Rhode Island. Here he established a milling center known as Carpenter's Mills or the Middle Iron Works.8 About the time he settled in Hopkinton he chose as his third wife Prudence Johnson and by her had two children. One of these was a girl who was given the name of Esther,9 later the mother of Prudence Crandall. Hezekiah's position as landed proprietor enabled him to give his daughter and her husband a substantial start in life. This " start " consisted of a generous share of his original grant of land, which he presented to them as a wedding gift.10 On this land Pardon erected a low, rambling house, and within a year of the wedding it was completed. Here the young couple were to spend the first eleven years of their married life,11 and here were to be born three of their four children : Hezekiah and Prudence—named no doubt after their maternal grandparents— and Reuben.12 Little is known about the youth of the daughter, Prudence, except that she was born on September 3, 1803,12 that as a...

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