History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as CitizensWilliams, George Washington
History
History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens
Williams, George Washington
African Americans -- History; Liberia; Sierra Leone
Samuel
J. May, of the neighboring town of Brooklyn, addressed her a
letter of sympathy, expressing his readiness to assist her to the
extent of his power, and was present at the town meeting held on
the 9th of March, called for the express purpose of devising and
adopting such measures as 'would effectually avert the nuisance
or speedily abate it if it should be brought into the village.'
"The friends of Miss Crandall were authorized by her to state to
the moderator of the town meeting that she would give up her
house, which was one of the most conspicuous in the village, and
not wholly paid for, if those who were opposed to her school
being there would take the property off her hands at the price
for which she had purchased it, and which was deemed a reasonable
one, and allow her time to procure another house in a more
retired part of the town.
"The town meeting was held in the meeting-house, which, though
capable of holding a thousand people, was crowded throughout to
its utmost capacity. After the warning for the meeting had been
read, resolutions were introduced in which were set forth the
disgrace and damage that would be brought upon the town if a
school for colored girls should be set up there, protesting
emphatically against the impending evil, and appointing the civil
authority and select-men a committee to wait upon 'the person
contemplating the establishment of said school, and persuade her,
if possible, to abandon the project.'
"The resolutions were advocated by Rufus Adams, Esq., and Hon.
Andrew T. Judson, who was then the most prominent man of the
town, and a leading politician in the State, and much talked of
as the Democratic candidate for governor, and was a
representative in Congress from 1835 to 1839, when he was elected
judge of the United States District Court, which position he held
until his death in 1853, adjudicating, among other causes, the
libel of the 'Amistad' and the fifty-four Africans on board.
After his address on this occasion, Mr. May, in company with Mr.
Arnold Buffum, a lecturing agent of the New England Anti-Slavery
Society, applied for permission to speak in behalf of Miss
Crandall, but their application was violently opposed, and the
resolutions being adopted, the meeting was declared, by the
moderator, adjourned.
"Mr. May at once stepped upon the seat where he had been sitting,
and rapidly vindicated Miss Crandall, replying to some of the
misstatements as to her purposes and the character of her
expected pupils, when he gave way to Mr. Buffum, who had spoken
scarcely five minutes before the trustees of the church ordered
the house to be vacated and the doors to be shut. There was then
no alternative but to yield.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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