"Modern Refinement," Response to the Black Law
Nantucket Inquirer
The Unionist 1833-08-08
Unionist content
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Transcription
Modern Refinement. —In the slave-holding States it has ever been contrary to law to bestow the advantages of education on a negro. For this regulation there is some show of plausible reasoning. We were not aware, however, that in the very heart of New-England there existed any such prohibition, until we saw it stated in the public prints, that a lady who had been engaged in keeping a school for blacks in Connecticut, had been arrested and thrown intro prison. She is placed in the same cell which has been occupied by a convicted murderer! There is something quite romantic in all this—inasmuch as it savors of the notions held in olden times—for instance, the chivalric days of the Sixth Harry:
Cade. Thou hast most notoriously corrupted the youth of the realm, in erecting a grammar school. It will be proved to thy face that thou hast those about thee, that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no christian can endure to hear.” Nantucket Inquirer
About this Item
Support for Crandall from Nantucket shows how far the news could travel in maritime circles. The quote of Jack Cade is from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part II, Act 4, Scene 7.
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See Full Metadata Hide Full MetadataExclusion of African-Americans from Schools
