{"id":56182,"date":"2014-12-28T08:59:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T13:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=56182"},"modified":"2014-12-29T10:46:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T15:46:59","slug":"prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Prudence Crandall’s legacy compels me to abolish abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

I enjoy history, especially the history of the United States and African-Americans. Imagine my excitement when I realized that the History Society in my city was holding a lecture on the life of Prudence Crandall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prudence Crandall is Connecticut’s state heroine. She was a young female teacher in the 1800s who bought a schoolhouse to teach girls in Canterbury, Connecticut. An unmarried woman who held a job, owned property, and educated others was a rare sight in that day. Yet Prudence found favor with the town leaders and educated many of their wealthy daughters. The school was a great success, until a black young woman named Sarah Harris asked Prudence if she could become a student.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Prudence told Sarah she would consider her request. She knew the risk she’d be taking accepting her. Prudence was a God-fearing woman who had grown up in an Quaker family and attended a boarding school run by an abolitionist. In spite of the cost, she chose to accept Sarah into her class. As you might imagine, the parents of the other students weren’t pleased with her decision. They threatened to take their girls out of the school if Sarah wasn’t kicked out. Prudence responded to these threats in a remarkable and surprising way. Instead of asking Sarah to leave the school, she shut her school down. She later reopened it, solely to teach black young women.<\/p>\n

Prudence connected with abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, creator of the anti-slavery paper The Liberator<\/em>. With the help of Garrison, Prudence traveled through New England, gathering female black students for her class. She found twenty students and brought them to her school. Town leaders were outraged; Prudence was continually harassed and pressured to close the school.<\/p>\n

Eventually those who opposed her passed ‘The Black Law<\/a>‘ to prohibit black students coming from other states to be taught in CT. Prudence ignored the law, continued to teach, and was arrested. After being released from prison, she kept teaching until the night an angry mob of men destroyed the school with brute force. Although the school never reopened, Prudence left CT and continued to stand up for the rights of others, particularly women.<\/p>\n

I was intrigued hearing the tale of Prudence’s bravery. The author of a book on Prudence’s life closed his message with a general statement that people are still engaged in fighting for justice. He mentioned the racial tensions facing America today and the battle women are engaged in for “reproductive rights.” That’s when I got upset. It was utterly depressing to think that the legacy of Crandall’s life would be associated with the fight for “reproductive rights” \u2013 especially when those “reproductive rights” lead to the death of more black Americans through abortion than any other cause.<\/p>\n

I had to approach the speaker. He was a brilliant researcher, writer, and former state senator. After he signed a few books, I asked to have a minute of his time. I thanked him for coming and for working so hard to tell Prudence’s story. I told him I was concerned about the well-being of the black community. I asked if I could tell him about an issue that is devastating our race. He obliged, and I spoke about Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s founder, and her belief in eugenics.<\/p>\n

I gave the statistics on black children killed in abortion and how black women abort more than any other race. I shared my testimony of surviving an attempted abortion. I’m sure I seemed quite intense. It didn’t matter in the moment. I wanted him to know that the fight for freedom for black Americans is connected to ending abortion, not promoting it. I assured him the abolition movement is alive and well.<\/p>\n

He politely listened, then told me that Roe v. Wade<\/em> wasn’t about genocide, but rather about women’s rights. I pleaded with him to research the history behind Planned Parenthood and read Sanger’s writings. “Harriet Tubman is one of my heroes,” I said. “Yet I only know her name because she lived.” He reflectively paused and said, “What is your name?” “Christina,” I said. “Well, Christina, I will look into it. You have piqued my curiosity.”<\/p>\n

I pray he kept his word. Prudence Crandall left a great legacy. She fought for blacks to be educated and respected. Those of us in the pro-life movement have an even greater call. We fight for blacks, and those of every race, to live. We are called to be abolitionists for the preborn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I enjoy history, especially the history of the United States and African-Americans. Imagine my excitement when I realized that the History Society in my city was holding a lecture on the life of Prudence Crandall. Prudence Crandall is Connecticut’s state heroine. She was a young female teacher in the 1800s who bought a schoolhouse to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":57658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[3102,2149,3037,34,3101,1109],"yoast_head":"\nPrudence Crandall's legacy compels me to abolish abortion - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prudence Crandall's legacy compels me to abolish abortion - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I enjoy history, especially the history of the United States and African-Americans. Imagine my excitement when I realized that the History Society in my city was holding a lecture on the life of Prudence Crandall. Prudence Crandall is Connecticut’s state heroine. She was a young female teacher in the 1800s who bought a schoolhouse to […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christina.m.martin.54\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-28T13:59:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-29T15:46:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Prudence.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"671\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christina Marie Bennett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ChristinaMar81\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christina Marie Bennett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Christina Marie Bennett\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/30873716583e62355a8406ee9ea7d40f\"},\"headline\":\"Prudence Crandall’s legacy compels me to abolish abortion\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-28T13:59:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-29T15:46:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/\"},\"wordCount\":754,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Black Americans\",\"history\",\"justice\",\"Pro-Life\",\"Prudence Crandall\",\"unborn\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/\",\"name\":\"Prudence Crandall's legacy compels me to abolish abortion - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-28T13:59:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-29T15:46:59+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Prudence Crandall’s legacy compels me to abolish abortion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/30873716583e62355a8406ee9ea7d40f\",\"name\":\"Christina Marie Bennett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0f7eeb386652a86e363114a584a1fbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0f7eeb386652a86e363114a584a1fbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christina Marie Bennett\"},\"description\":\"Christina Marie Bennett almost lost her life as a preborn child. Her mother paid for an abortion but walked out of the doctor's office after a janitor in the hospital approached her. The janitor told her God would give her the strength to have her baby and she believed it. Hearing this story in her 20's caused Christina to become strongly pro-life. After graduating college in 2005, Christina spent a few years at the Justice House of Prayer in D.C and with the pro-life group Bound4Life. She then moved to the Atlanta to be on staff with the 24\/7 prayer ministry IHOP ATL. Christina is a wife and stepmom who currently works for a CareNet pregnancy center. She writes for Bound4life's blog and at www.chrismarie.com. Christina loves Jesus and has a heart for the Black community. She is a member of the National Black Pro-life coalition. and she believes the greatest civil right is the right to life.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.chrismarie.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christina.m.martin.54\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChristinaMar81\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/christinamartin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prudence Crandall's legacy compels me to abolish abortion - Live Action News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prudence Crandall's legacy compels me to abolish abortion - Live Action News","og_description":"I enjoy history, especially the history of the United States and African-Americans. Imagine my excitement when I realized that the History Society in my city was holding a lecture on the life of Prudence Crandall. Prudence Crandall is Connecticut’s state heroine. She was a young female teacher in the 1800s who bought a schoolhouse to […]","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christina.m.martin.54","article_published_time":"2014-12-28T13:59:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-29T15:46:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":671,"height":366,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Prudence.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Christina Marie Bennett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ChristinaMar81","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christina Marie Bennett","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/"},"author":{"name":"Christina Marie Bennett","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/30873716583e62355a8406ee9ea7d40f"},"headline":"Prudence Crandall’s legacy compels me to abolish abortion","datePublished":"2014-12-28T13:59:44+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-29T15:46:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/"},"wordCount":754,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Black Americans","history","justice","Pro-Life","Prudence Crandall","unborn"],"articleSection":["Opinion"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/","name":"Prudence Crandall's legacy compels me to abolish abortion - Live Action News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-28T13:59:44+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-29T15:46:59+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/prudence-crandalls-legacy-compels-me-to-abolish-abortion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Prudence Crandall’s legacy compels me to abolish abortion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/30873716583e62355a8406ee9ea7d40f","name":"Christina Marie Bennett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0f7eeb386652a86e363114a584a1fbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0f7eeb386652a86e363114a584a1fbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Christina Marie Bennett"},"description":"Christina Marie Bennett almost lost her life as a preborn child. Her mother paid for an abortion but walked out of the doctor's office after a janitor in the hospital approached her. The janitor told her God would give her the strength to have her baby and she believed it. Hearing this story in her 20's caused Christina to become strongly pro-life. After graduating college in 2005, Christina spent a few years at the Justice House of Prayer in D.C and with the pro-life group Bound4Life. She then moved to the Atlanta to be on staff with the 24\/7 prayer ministry IHOP ATL. Christina is a wife and stepmom who currently works for a CareNet pregnancy center. She writes for Bound4life's blog and at www.chrismarie.com. Christina loves Jesus and has a heart for the Black community. She is a member of the National Black Pro-life coalition. and she believes the greatest civil right is the right to life.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.chrismarie.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christina.m.martin.54","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChristinaMar81"],"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/christinamartin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56182"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57715,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56182\/revisions\/57715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}