The Fayerweather name is well known in South County history. Several generations of the Fayerweather family, descendants of slaves, served the village of Kingston and the surrounding countryside as blacksmiths throughout the nineteenth century. Ironically, however, the Fayerweather name is most often remembered for a person who acquired it through marriage rather than by birth.
Sarah Ann Harris Fayerweather, wife of George Fayerweather III, achieved her place in history at the tender age of twenty-one in the small village of Canterbury, Connecticut. Sarah, a native of Connecticut, was born in Norwich in 1812 and moved with her family to a farm in Canterbury in early 1832. Hoping to pursue a career as a teacher, she enrolled in Prudence Crandall's "select school for girls" in the fall of 1832, the only black girl admitted to the school. Her admission caused an immediate uproar in Canterbury, during the course of which the parents of most of the white students withdrew their children from the school.
Undaunted by this setback, Crandall kept her school open to "young ladies and misses of color," including Sarah Harris, recruited from around the country. Crandall's earlier problems were nothing compared to the storm that erupted in the wake of this decision. The citizens of Canterbury responded by pelting the students and the school building with eggs, stones, and assorted other brickbats. Local merchants refused to do business with the school. The response of the Connecticut legislature was, if possible, even more insidious. The legislators enacted a so-called "black law" which made it illegal to establish any school for "colored persons who are not inhabitants of the state." Crandall ignored the law, was arrested and imprisoned by local authorities, tried, and convicted of violating the "black law." Her conviction was later overturned on a technicality.
Despite local harassment and state opposition, Crandall tried to keep her school open and received support in her effort from a number of prominent abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison and Rev. Samuel May. She became convinced of the futility of her crusade, however, when on the night of September 9, 1834 a local mob surrounded the school, broke all its windows, and attempted to set the building afire. Fearing that any further attempts to operate the school would needlessly endanger her pupils, Crandall closed the school, sold the building, and left Canterbury.
While the crisis still hung fire, but after Sarah had withdrawn from the school, she married George Fayerweather III on November 28, 1833. They remained in the Canterbury area for a short while after their wedding before moving to New Haven where they lived until 1855. George carried on the family trade of blacksmithing while Sarah bore six children: Prudence Crandall (born 1834), Sarah (born 1835), Mary (born 1837), Isabella (born 1839), George IV (born 1842), and Charles (born 1846).
In 1855, the Fayerweathers sold their home in New Haven and returned to the Fayerweather family home of Kingston. George, Sarah, and the children moved into the Helme House, half of which Sarah had purchased for three hundred dollars on 1853. George's widowed mother continued to live in Fayerweather cottage, the family homestead. George joined two of his brothers in running the family blacksmith shop and Sarah retained her interest in the antislavery movement. She corresponded frequently with Prudence Crandall and the Garrison family, as well as being a regular subscriber and diligent reader of Garrison's Liberator. She was also a frequent visitor to antislavery rallies in New England and New York.
George Fayerweather died in 1869 and Sarah followed him in death nine years later in 1878. The Fayerweather name lives on in Kingston, however, gracing the names of two buildings in the area. The Fayerweather family homestead, vacant and deteriorating for a number of years, was acquired by the Kingston Improvement Association and renovated for use as a community craft center. In 1970, the nearby University of Rhode Island named its newly constructed residence hall after Sarah Harris Fayerveather.
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Fayerweather Family Papers, Mss. Gr. 121, University of Rhode Island, University Archives and Special Collections.
The Fayerweather Family Papers contain the personal papers and memorabilia of several generations of the Fayerweather family of Kingston, Rhode Island, of whom Sarah Harris Fayerweather was the most prominent member. The papers were removed from the Fayerweather cottage during its renovation by the Kingston Improvement Association in 1965 and deposited in the Kingston Free Library.
The papers have been divided into two series, Sarah Fayerweather Correspondence and a Subject Series. Series one, Sarah Fayerweather Correspondence, though consisting of only about ten items, merits separate treatment because of the significance of the correspondents involved. Among those represented is Helen Benson Garrison, wife of William Lloyd Garrison, and Prudence Crandall Philleo, founder of the school for girls in Canterbury, who set off an uproar by her decision to admit Sarah Harris to the school.
Series two, the Subject Series, contains a variety of materials relating to several generations of the Fayerweather family. The series includes account books, deeds, marriage and death certificates, address books, autograph books, mortgage notes, photographs, receipts and correspondence. Items of special interest include an account book for the blacksmith shop of Solomon and George Fayerweather for 1868 and those relating to the tangled web of the Fayerweather estate.
The collection has been arranged into two series as follows:
The papers were removed from the Fayerweather cottage during its renovation by the Kingston Improvement Association in 1965 and deposited in the Kingston Free Library.
This series consists of the correspondence of Sarah Harris Fayerweather, plus two letters concerning Sarah from Prudence Crandall Philleo (Philleo was Prudence Crandall's married name) to Sarah's daughters Mary and Isabella. Though containing only a small number of items, this series merits separate treatment because of the historical significance of the correspondents.
Among the most interesting items is a letter to Sarah from Helen Benson Garrison, wife of noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. The informal tone of the letter indicates the close relationship between the Fayerweather’s and the Garrison’s. In addition to thanking Sarah for an apparently annual gift of a fruitcake to the Garrison family, Mrs. Garrison indicated that her husband enjoyed seeing Sarah in New York and accompanying her to an antislavery lecture by Wendell Phillips.
Also of interest are four letters of Prudence Crandall Philleo, two to Sarah and one each to her daughters Mary and Isabella, commiserating with them on the death of their mother. The letters reveal in rich detail Philleo's life in the Midwest. Other items include letters to Sarah from her mother Sally Prentice Harris and letters from Sarah to her husband George and to her daughter Isabella on the occasion of her sixteenth birthday.
The series is arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and items are arranged chronologically within folders. The originals of the correspondence in Folders 2 and 5 are missing (see Deed of Gift). Copies were made from copies in the Carl R. Woodward Papers, except for a letter of Prudence Crandall Philleo dated March 16, 1880, which was not found in the Woodward collection.
The Subject Series consists of a variety of materials representing several generations of the Fayerweather family. Included are account books, deeds, marriage and death certificates, address books, autograph books, mortgage notes, photographs, miscellaneous receipts, and correspondence.
Among the many items of interest are account books of the blacksmith shop of George and Solomon Fayerweather. Aside from demonstrating the skill and versatility of the village blacksmith, the account books indicate that George and Solomon ran a profitable and successful business.
Those interested in the tangled web of the Fayerweather estate, occasioned by the death of George and Solomon's father, will find a wealth of material in the folders labeled Mabel Perry (granddaughter of Sarah and George Fayerweather), Perry Estate, and Fayerweather Property.
Sarah's continuing interest in the antislavery movement is demonstrated by a receipt made out to her for Garrison's newspaper, The Liberator, dated January 1, 1862.Other items of interest include materials relating to Sarah's daughter, Isabella Fayerweather Mitchell, photographs of several generations of the Fayerweather family, and an unsigned, undated handwritten copy of an antislavery song entitled, "Wake Nicodemus".
The series is arranged alphabetically by folder title and chronologically within folders.