Sarah Harris Fayerweather (April 16 1812 – November 16 1878) was an African-American activist, abolitionist, and school integrationist. Beginning in January 1833 at the age of twenty, she attended

Prudence Crandall Prudence Crandall (September 3, 1803 – January 27, 1890) was an American schoolteacher and activist. She ran the first school for black girls ("young Ladies and little Misses of color") in the United States, located in Canterbury, Connecticut. ...

Canterbury Female Boarding School The Canterbury Female Boarding School, in Canterbury, Connecticut, was operated by its founder, Prudence Crandall, from 1831 to 1834. When townspeople would not allow African-American girls to enroll, Crandall decided to turn it into a school for ...

Canterbury, Connecticut Canterbury is a New England town, town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,045 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. History The area was settled by English colonists in the 1680s as ''Peagscomsuck''. It c ...

, the first integrated school in the United States.

Early life and education

Fayerweather was born Sarah Ann Major Harris on April 16, 1812, in Norwich, Connecticut. The daughter of William Monteflora Harris and Sally Prentice Harris, both of whom were free farmers, Fayerweather was of African descent and the second oldest of twelve children. She was raised in the Orthodox Congregational Church of Canterbury. In September 1832, Fayerweather requested admission to the Canterbury Female Boarding School. In a letter to William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper ''The Liberator'', Crandall recalls Sarah's visit: "A colored girl of respectability – a professor of religion – and daughter of honorable parents, called on me sometime during the month of September last, and said in a very earnest manner, 'Miss Crandall, I want to get a little more learning, enough if possible to teach colored children, and if you will admit me into your school I shall forever be under the greatest obligation to you. If you think it will be the means of injuring you, I will not insist on the favor.'" After brief deliberation, Crandall admitted her to the school and refused to expel her when the parents of most of the other attendees withdrew their daughters. Faced with severe opposition from the Canterbury community, Crandall closed the existing school – only to reopen in 1833 in order to teach a group of solely African-American students. Sarah continued to attend the school in the face of harassment and ostracization until Crandall, afraid for her pupils' safety after a mob converged on the school in September 1834, closed the school permanently.

Family life

Fayerweather married George Fayerweather, Jr., a mixed-race blacksmith ten years her senior, on November 28, 1833. The couple moved to

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

in 1841 before moving to

Kingston, Rhode Island Kingston is a village and a census-designated place within the town of South Kingstown in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and the site of the main campus of the University of Rhode Island. The population was 6,974 at the 201 ...

, in 1855 to raise their eight children. Both Fayerweather and her husband supported abolitionism and racial equality; Fayerweather joined the Kingston Anti-Slavery Society, attended antislavery meetings held by the American Anti-Slavery Society in various cities across the North, maintained a correspondence with her former teacher Prudence Crandall and former slave and abolitionist

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

, and subscribed to ''The Liberator'' until Garrison ceased publishing it in 1865. She also maintained an active church life, joining the Sunday school class at Kingston's Congregational church.

Death

Surviving her husband by nine years, Fayerweather died on November 16, 1878, from a swelling of the neck. She was buried in the Old Fernwood Cemetery in Kingston, Rhode Island.

Legacy and honors

In 1970 Fayerweather Hall, a dormitory on the campus of

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

, was named for Sarah Harris Fayerweather. The Fayerweather Craft Guild, located in Kingston at the site of the Fayerweather family's former home and blacksmith shop, was also named in her honor.

References

External links