Playwrights' work on Prudence Crandall to be staged at Nafe Katter Theatre

A rich chapter of Connecticut history will come to life on the stage from Feb. 23 through March 5, as the Connecticut Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of Prudence.

The play, penned by a UConn professor and his wife, tells the story of Connecticut’s state heroine and early civil rights pioneer, Prudence Crandall.

Carlton Molette, a professor of dramatic arts and senior fellow of the Institute for African American Studies, and his wife, Barbara Molette, an emeritus English professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, are accomplished playwrights who wrote six works together prior to Prudence.

He says they were drawn to the story of Prudence Crandall and her early 19th-century school for girls in Canterbury when they moved to Connecticut more than a dozen years ago.

He recalls staying at a local motel while looking for a house near campus, and picking up a stack of brochures to familiarize themselves with the area.

“The one that really grabbed our attention was the one about the Prudence Crandall School,” Molette says.

“The big question for us was and still is, ‘Why hasn’t the story of Prudence Crandall attracted more attention in the state of Connecticut?’” he says. “How is it that so many of my students, who have gone through K-12 education in Connecticut, know so little about Prudence?”

One possible explanation is that Connecticut has not required state history to be taught in elementary and secondary schools for more than two decades, and Prudence Crandall was not named the state heroine until 1995. Another possible reason, Molette suggests, is that Prudence Crandall’s story spotlights a moment that was not one of Connecticut’s finest.

Crandall, a white Quaker, unleashed a firestorm of bigotry in the state when she allowed a black girl, Sarah Harris, to attend her private girls’ school in Canterbury in 1832. She had founded the school, attended by the white daughters of local gentry, in 1831.

After most of the white students withdrew, Crandall closed the school and reopened it as a school for black girls in 1833.

In response, state lawmakers enacted legislation known as the Black Law, which required schools to obtain local permission for educating black children. Crandall was arrested and prosecuted by her neighbor, Andrew T. Judson, for violating a law created for the express purpose of closing her school.

She and her students went through three trials, the last of which was dismissed by a judge, but she ultimately closed the school after 17 months, following violent attacks on the school, including a fire.

After closing her school, Crandall left the state and did not return even after the state legislature honored the courage and moral strength she had shown in taking a stand against prejudice by offering her a $400 annual pension.