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Prudence Crandall House, Canterbury, CT

Photo: Jerry Dougherty, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Museums

Prudence Crandall House

State museum in Canterbury marking the 1830s school that admitted Black and Brown students and the legal fight that followed.

1 South Canterbury Road, Canterbury, CT 06331 · Canterbury, CT

About Prudence Crandall House

The Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, Connecticut, tells the story of the Canterbury Female Boarding School, which Prudence Crandall opened to Black and Brown students in 1833. The school drew hostile local opposition, and the state passed a law that blocked out-of-state Black students from attending. Crandall was arrested and faced several trials, and a mob attack closed the school in 1834. The museum is a National Historic Landmark and an International Site of Conscience. Visitors join a one-hour guided tour of a first-floor exhibit, and the tours are conversational. The museum also maintains a Peace Garden that is open to the public at no charge.

  • #civil rights
  • #abolition
  • #education history
  • #National Historic Landmark
  • #guided tour

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