In 1833, a "Select Academy" for Black women opened in Canterbury, Connecticut. Through the persistence of Black women Mariah Davis and Sarah Harris, and the courage of the white teacher, Prudence Crandall, this high school became the most advanced form of higher education open to women of any race at the time. Local white anger tried to prevent, and later close, the school, but within its walls something more important was happening. Dedicated learning, interracial alliances, and political acumen all expanded. The vigilante and legal violence (four courtroom cases in one year) could not deter the students and teachers from learning, for the 18 months when the school operated. While it may seem easy to deem the Canterbury Academy a failure, author Jennifer Rycenga demonstrates how a closer examination, focusing on Black women, proves its success - in its inception, its sustenance, its legal battles, in the rich and varied lives of the students after the school, and in the myriad accomplishments of their descendants. Join us virtually for a lively discussion of these early non-violent yet tenacious students, teachers, and their abolitionist networks. Their example, against seemingly insurmountable opposition, can speak to us today.
Jennifer Rycenga, author of Schooling the Nation: The Success of the Canterbury Female Academy (University of Illinois Press, 2025), is Professor Emerita in the Humanities Department at San José State University. Her scholarly work has focused on the Abolitionist movement, exploring areas previously hidden or marginalized, such as Black women’s activities and voices, philosophic analyses of the work of Black speaker Maria Stewart (1803-1879), the anti-racist work of white Abolitionists, and networks of families and friends involved in the struggles against slavery and injustice. In addition to her work on the Canterbury school controversy, she has led two Digital Humanities projects on the Burleigh family of Plainfield, Connecticut - seven siblings who all supported Prudence Crandall and the Canterbury school.
Rycenga’s other work ranges widely across feminist musicology (co-editor with Sheila Whiteley of Queering the Popular Pitch, Routledge 2006), global feminism (Frontline Feminisms, co-edited with Marguerite Waller, Routledge 2001), and lesbian philosophy (The Mary Daly Reader, co-edited with Linda Barufaldi, New York University Press, 2017). Her next major work will examine the convergence of justice, history, and the natural world.
Jennifer Rycenga lives in Rochester, New York with her wife Peggy Macres, an elderly yet spry Shitzu-Poodle, Patsy Cline, and two highly-contented cats, Lyssa (Greek; Bringer of Chaos) and Ipo (Hawaiian; sweetheart).