The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-04-30
WE'LL DONE, OLD CONNECTI-
GIFT

A case of great interest has been
pending in the Connecticut legislature
the past winter, granting relief to an
aged victim of violence and injustice
more than half acentury ago. The cir
cumstances, briefly told, are as follows:
In 1888 Miss Prudence Crandall
was teacher in a school for 8 young
ladies and misses of color" in that
state. In August of the same year she
was arraigned for the crime of keep.
ing boarding school and teaching COL
ored girls" contrary to then recent
law of the state, evidently forced
through the legislature to meet Der
case. The jury disagreed, and a few
months following she was again
brought to trial and found guilty.
The case was then appealed to the
Supreme Court and thrown out for in
fOrmality. Having twice prosecuted
her, and kept her IN jail over night,
and failing to,drive her from the place,
or break up her school, her enemies re-
sorted to the torch and mob law. The
fire was extinguished, but her house
was assailed at midnight and sashed
smashed and hundred lights of glass
broken. Prior to this, her well has
been foIled and her house besmeared
with filth. and herself insulted in every
manner, and at length the school was
abandoned, her scholars fleeing to save
their lives.
Subsequently Miss Crandall married
a Baptist clergyman. who died some
years since, and she is now living in
Kansas at an advanced age in great
perjury. A billa was pending to grant
her pension of $500 per annum. Hon.
VIM. w. Lee, of Meridin, who took
great interest in the case, made pow
erful speech in it's support.
"The history unfolded to us in this
transaction" said he, is only another
page in the long, black record that
humanity has made in its struggles up
ward toward higher civilization and
a diviner life. am old enough to re-
member something of the story of
Prudence Crandall, and the treatment
that she received from the people of
Connecticut through its legislature. /
was fortunate enough to be reared in
a New England home, where was in
culcated some regard for the rights of
humanity, and as loyal and loving
son Of Connecticut, tracing my ancestry
back 250 years and more, within thirty
miles of this capital, / feel to walk
backward, as did the sons of Noah,
and cover this record of shame with a
mantle of justice ~. Time has
swept along and few Of the actors in
that record of shame are now among
the living. The grave has closed over
their mistakes, their follies and their
shame. The victim of the wrong and
shame of those days still survives, but
past the four score milestone, and, in
the nature of the case. the years that
are before her are few. An opportuni
| ty is now offered, in some slight de
gree, to repair the wrong that was
done to helpless woman more than
half century since, and we cannot az
ford to let this wrong go unredressed
Thanks to the Great Jehovah, I believe
a generation has arisen which has the
courage and dares to undo the injustice
done by the fathers. / hope this bill
will pass unanimously"
The bill was passed with but one
dissenting voice, and conservative old
Connecticut placed herself on the re-
cords Of justice. d.