menial condition in our country, and ought
not to be permitted to rise here; that they were an inferior race
and should not be recognized as the equals of the whites; that
they should be sent back to Africa, and improve themselves there,
and civilize and Christianize the natives. To this Mr. May
replied that there never would be fewer colored people in this
country than there were then; that it was unjust to drive them
out of the country; that we must accord to them their rights or
incur the loss of our own; that education was the primal,
fundamental right of all the children of men; and that
Connecticut was the last place where this should be denied.

"The conversation was continued in a similar strain, in the
course of which Mr. Judson declared with warmth: 'That nigger
school shall never be allowed in Canterbury, nor in any town of
this State'; and he avowed his determination to secure the
passage of a law by the Legislature then in session, forbidding
the institution of such a school in any part of the State.

"Undismayed by the opposition and the threatened violence of her
neighbors, Miss Crandall received, early in April, fifteen or
twenty colored young ladies and misses from Philadelphia, New
York, Providence, and Boston, and the annoyances of her
persecutors at once commenced: all accommodations at the stores
in Canterbury being denied her, her pupils being insulted
whenever they appeared on the streets, the doors and door-steps
of her house being besmeared, and her well filled with filth;
under all of which, both she and her pupils remained firm. Among
other means used to intimidate, an attempt was made to drive away
those innocent girls by a process under the obsolete vagrant law,
which provided that the select-men of any town might warn any
person, not an inhabitant of the State, to depart forthwith,
demanding $1.67 for every week he or she remained after receiving
such warning; and in case the fine was not paid and the person
did not depart before the expiration of ten days after being
sentenced, _then he or she should be whipped on the naked body,
not exceeding ten stripes_.

"A warrant to that effect was actually served upon Eliza Ann
Hammond, a fine girl from Providence, aged seventeen years; but
it was finally abandoned