Connecticut BLACK Law
Liverpool (Pa.) Mercury.
The Unionist 1833-08-08
Unionist content
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Transcription
Connecticut BLACK Laws. —We mentioned, a short time since, that the Legislature of Connecticut had passed a law forbidding under heavy penalties, every individual in that state from teaching colored people from other States to read and write! We took no farther notice of it at the time, supposing it to be intended as a sort of quiz upon the Yankees, or perhaps a paragraph thrown in by some mischievous printer’s imp, to fill out a newspaper column. But now seems there was ‘no mistake’ in the matter. A young lady by the name of Crandall, of Canterbury, in that state, is now suffering the penalty of that law in a prison! Yes, the State of Connecticut, with all its boasted philanthropy and christianity—a State which annually sends tens of thousands of dollars to instruct the heathen on the opposite side of the globe, in the arts, sciences and DOGMAS of civilization, will not allow the free citizens of our own country to be taught to read and write within the limits of their state! How long is it, we would ask, since the entire population of the “universal Yankee nation,’ appeared ready to take up arms, break open the prison doors of the Georgia penitentiary, release the missionaries, Worcester and Butler, and nullify the law for a willful violation of which they had been imprisoned: a law, by the way, far less anti-republican and unconstitutional than this Connecticut law, under which a worthy female has been imprisoned. Admirable consistency! Pure Christianity! More on this subject, anon.— Liverpool (Pa.) Mercury.
About this Item
This Pennsylvania paper raises a comparison to the unjust imprisonment of the missionary Samuel Worcester (1798-1859) in Georgia. Worcester defended Cherokee sovereignty and right to education, for which he was imprisoned.
