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Auction: 284 - Bond, Share & Americana Mailbid & Internet Exclusive
Lot: 1007

Crandall, Prudence American abolitionist and educator (1803-90); when she admitted a black student to her Connecticut school for girls in 1833, most of her white students left the school, and she began to cater exclusively to girls of color; violence against her students forced her to close it in 1834. Great, lengthy ALS "Mrs. P[rudence] C [randall] Philleo," 4 full pages, legal folio, Elk Falls, KS, 5/15-17/1881. She writes W.P. Garrison - undoubtedly Wendell Phillips Garrison, editor and son of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison - with her plan "for the benefit of colored persons any and every where but particularly for those coming into Kansas seeking homes for themselves. Elk Falls is a third-rate incorporated City. Just one mile West of the town I have a farm of 160 acres of good land...To my fancy the humble little dwelling...is beautifully situated on a hill which gradually rises to quite an eminence...On this eminence I want a college built that shall be self-sustaining into which can be admitted the poor of every Sex, class, or color on whom the light of heaven ever shone...I much desire that the farm may be made a germ, a nucleus of something valuable in the way of education to the colored people in Kansas..." She goes on to say that she thinks a school solely for blacks would be a mistake, and favors one open to all who wish to learn. Close of letter written sideways in top margins. Some minor fading of ink, with partial fold splits, otherwise in very good condition. Although Prudence Crandall Philleo would live another decade, she was never able to realize her dream of opening a new integrated school. Estimate US$ 150-200

Sold for
$350