From the trial transcript:
Miss Crandell's Boarding School
for Young Ladies of Color
Canterbury CT, 1833-34
Miss Crandall, you stand accused of knowingly
teaching colored persons not resident of the state,
without prior consent. What is your plea?
The Teacher does not instruct. The teacher waits.
Girl, has anyone been teaching anything to you and your friends?
Who taught you how to plead the Fifth Amendment?
Your honor, I submit as evidence
of alleged teaching of alleged students
this colored girl here, who openly reads books
and gazes skyward, who has been overheard
conversing animatedly in polysyllabic words
and referring off-handedly to the Ancient Greeks.
The Teacher teaches, without words and without action,
simplicity, patience, and compassion.
Marilyn Nelson, Poetry, September 2005
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