by Edwin M. Hall

The Background and Resolution of the Eunice Ross Controversy

by Kristi Kraemer

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NANTUCKET, LONG KNOWN for its anti-slavery attitudes and acceptance of blacks as part of the community, was under stress during the mid-1840's that controversey raged over whether or not to allow Eunice Ross, a black girl, to enter the only high school on the island, which had, theretofore, been attended only by whites. The Quakers were the majority in Nantucket, and, while they had a history of fighting against the establishment and expansion of public schools, they had also been the first religious group in America to publicly decry slavery and had endeavored not only to help free slaves, but to accept blacks into their community, according them full rights as citizens. There had been an established Black community in Nantucket, which included people from all walks of life and a variety of origins. It was a "separate but accepted" community, sharing its people and skills freely with the whites and enjoying rights accorded blacks few places in the United States. An equilibrium had been reached.

At the time of the Eunice Ross controversey, however, the Quakers and Nantucket itself were facing attacks from without and within on basic religious and economic issues, and were splintered and fragmented in their attitudes and approaches to the problem.

Unlike the Puritans, who believed that all men were sinners and could be saved by strict adherence to acomplex mixture of Biblical law and clerical rule, the Quakers believed that each individual had a divine communication with God and, through individual meditation and prayer, could ascertain for himself the proper modes of behavior, speech, and life. The Puritans believed in hard work, a strong clergy and the Bible. The Quakers agreed only with the concept of hard work, feeling that by having an established clergy, there was an implication that some men were more in favor with God than others, which did not fit with their belief that all men were equal and at one with the Divine. Because of this belief, they also used the Bible only as a last resort in solving problems, preferring instead to trust the Inner Light that burns in all men.

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society flourished which accepted all men as equally Divine. There was no established clergy on the island for many years, and social distinctions were shunned, replaced by simplicity of dress and behavior and an acceptance of all men as part of the community.

The Quakers believed strongly in education as a way of enhancing the Inner Light, and moved early on to find teachers for their children. Because they recognized the corruptive influence of materialism and other systems of more prescriptive religion, however, they preferred to have their children taught by members of their own faith and protected from "the World's people" until such time as they learned to trust their own consciences. The schools that were established, therefore, were of a private nature, where teachers were sought and hired for the students that were in need of education. The first recorded schoolmaster on the island was one Eleazer Folger, who was hired in 1716, but only stayed in that position for one year.

This is not to say that there was no education going on. Indeed, there was. It was going on in homes, where, in many cases, each student paid a penny per day to a teacher to learn lessons. There was also, around 1725, a school established by Timothy White, the minister of the Congregational church. There were even some "Fragment Schools," charity schools established and maintained by the Quakers for those who could not otherwise afford an education. One man, Benjamin Coffin, a Quaker, was a teacher from 1740 until his death, and is recorded to have taught over 1,500 students, both from paying and non-paying families, both black and white.

The people of the island, therefore, felt that education was being adequately provided by existant means and felt justified in ignoring the 1647 Massachusetts law which required that, for every town of fifty households, money must be put aside for the establishment of a public schoolhouse and teacher. Between the private schools and charity schools education was, it was felt, going on in Nantucket, and the Quakers were able to maintain the desired control over the education of their own children.

This was the situation until 1818, when, under pressure from some new immigrants from the mainland who were used to having public schools available, a Committee of Inquiry was established to see if, indeed, education was as available to all students as the Quakers maintained. It was found that it was not. There were found to be over three hundred destitute, illiterate children on the island and, after the threat of a legal suit to be made in the Massachusetts courts against the town

EUNICE ROSS CONTROVERSY

fathers of Nantucket, public schools were established in 1827.

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Within a few years, along with other schools on the island, the African school which had previously been established by the black community in 1827 was receiving public funds. By 1854, there were twelve public schools on the island, serving approximately twelve hundred students, with one high school. There was also a number of private and parochial schools flourishing, including the Coffin school, established in 1827 by Sir Isaac Coffin for-the descendants of Tristram Coffin, an Academy on Academy Hill which had been established in 1800 and various church-sponsored schools, many of which were Quaker, still trying to retain control over their children's education as well as protection from the corruptive influences of the world's children.

Although the Quakers fought the establishment of the public schools, they had long believed in the availability of education for everyone, without regard to color and had tried, in their private way, to provide it. This was in keeping with their belief in the equality of all men. As early as 1716, the Nantucket Quakers, spurred by the horror stories of the slave trade by deep water mariners, had publicly condemned slavery as an institution and preferred, instead, to see slaves as indentured servants, to be freed and paid after a number of years of service and training.

This was echoed in the "Testament Against That Anti-Christian Practice of Making Slaves of Men," written by Elihu Coleman in 1729-30 and published and distributed by the Society of Friends in 1733. Coleman, a Nantucketer, cited George Fox and Robert Barclay in his diatribe against slavery, declaring it to be against all the basic tenets of the Quaker faith. It was violent, said Coleman, stating that only oppressors enslave their fellow man and violence in any form was to be condemned as contrary to the respect for all men. It was also contrary to the idea of equality, so basic to the Quaker faith, and it denied the excercise of the free will given all men by their creator.

Like earlier men taking this position, Coleman recommended that slaves be freed after a number of years, when they had repaid their debts of immigration and transportation of their owners and were trained in such skills as to be able to function as free people in a free society. At such time, Coleman recommended that they be paid some for their services and accepted as part of the community.

In 1770, all the slaves in Nantucket were freed after William Rotch, who owned the whaling ship, "Friendship," paid a salary to a black whaleman named "Boston," just as he would to any other crew member