Getting a sense of how and where people lived is one
of the more interesting ways to make history come alive, so we visited several
historical homes during our recent trip to Connecticut.
We expected to learn about some of men and women so
important in colonial America, but the real surprise was learning more about a person
familiar to us because of his ties to Michigan.
Mention William Beaumont to Detroit-area residents
and they may tell you about their most recent hospital visit. Local history
buffs also know about Beaumont’s time as an Army surgeon in northern Michigan
during the 1820s.
I live within several miles of one of William
Beaumont Hospital’s campuses. I also know about Beaumont’s pioneering work and
experiments in northern Michigan, where his observation of a patient with an
open wound created by a musket shot built the basis for much of what we
understand about human digestion. It still surprised me to learn Beaumont was
born in Connecticut.
The simple white house in quiet Lebanon, Connecticut
gave no hint of Beaumont’s interesting life or his time spent in several
Midwestern locations before ending his career as a civilian doctor in St.
Louis, Missouri.
Nathan Hale’s career and life was considerably
shorter than Beaumont’s, but he surely experienced a full lifetime of adventure
and drama before his 1776 execution as a spy at age 21.
Young Nathan grew up in Coventry, Connecticut before
going to Yale College and becoming a teacher. His teaching career ended as he became
a military officer during what became America’s Revolutionary War.
He volunteered to spy behind British lines. Captured
in New York, he confessed his role as a spy and the British Army hanged him.
We learned about Hale’s life at the Nathan Hale
Homestead. Hale grew up on the homestead property, although his family
completed the large red house currently standing there after his death.
Hale’s pre-execution declaration that “I only regret
that I have but one life to lose for my country” earned him enduring fame as a patriot
and eventual naming as Connecticut’s official State Hero.
Connecticut also recognizes the courage of Prudence
Crandall as the official State Heroine.
The Rhode Island-born Quaker moved with her family
to Canterbury, Connecticut. She attended a Friends’ school in Rhode Island and
taught elsewhere in Connecticut before returning to Canterbury and opening a school
for young women in 1832.
Women found little in the way of academic
opportunities at the time, especially when it came to more advanced studies. Educational
opportunities for young African-American women were even scarcer.
Young Sarah Harris, an aspiring teacher and daughter
of a free African-American farmer, sought admission to Crandall’s school.
Crandall admitted Harris as a student in 1833. Connecticut responded by passing
a law restricting and nearly outlawing the teaching of African-Americans. Protests,
harassment and violence led to closing the school and to Crandall moving out of
the state.
Years later, Crandall received an official apology
from Connecticut and a small yearly pension.
Today, the pale yellow Canterbury house stands as testament
to Crandall’s courage and houses a chronicle of some of the early efforts in
progressive educational reform.
© Dominique King 2008
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