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"Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock." - Mary Shelly, Frankenstein, ch. XIII
The Unionist 1:7 or 1:8
(September 12 or 19, 1833)
“O! SHAME! SHAME!!”
☞ The following paragraph is extracted from the Unionist of last week:
“The laudable efforts of the Canterbury worthies to drive Miss Crandall from her purpose, by withholding from her the necessaries of life, will have the effect to perpetuate their own well earned fame, if not to attain its primary object. The latest measure which we have heard of their adopting, is the FILLING MISS C’S WELL WITH MANURE FROM THE BARNYARD, and then refusing to give her water from their own wells.”
from The Liberator, September 21, 1833, p. 151 (3:38:151)
The Liberator at the Fair Use Repository
Commentary and Analysis
The ongoing vigilante violence against the Black students and the teachers at the Canterbury Female Academy was one of the best-known aspects of the school's history, then and now. This seeping, seething hatred manifested in these ugly sophomoric immaturities. It is impossible to know whether these acts were committed by smart-aleck ruffians on their own, or with the tacit approval of town leaders, or even in a direct coalition with those leaders. But it is important to note back that there is no hint in the public record of the school or its supporters taking petty revenge.
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Assuming again that this is Charles C. Burleigh's writing, his sarcastic description of the town's "laudable efforts" is made to reveal thehypocrisy inherent in their aims. But he places one predication in the text, which has proven true - this sort of harassment has served to "perpetuate their own well earned fame;" that is, their opprobrium.
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At a technical level, it is not possible from the vague "last week's Unionist" label from the Liberator to ascertain whether this came from the September 12 or September 19 issue of The Unionist. The publication dates for the two papers - Thursday for The Unionist and Saturday for The Liberator, make it possible for this content to have come from the September 19 issue, but its placement deep on page three of The Liberator issue makes it seem more likely to me that Garrison and Knapp had the article in hand for more than 24 hours. So I have placed this as content from the September 12, 1833 Unionist.