Abolitionists of Noyes Academy

    American slavery divided not just the North from the South, but also northerners from each other. In the mid-1830s, the emergence of an aggressive national abolitionist movement provoked bitter blowback in the north—including a wave of mob violence against abolitionists. Canaan, N.H., became one of many New England flashpoints after abolitionists there opened what may have been the nation’s first integrated, co-educational, preparatory school. African-American students flocked to Noyes Academy but were soon driven out by the locals, who dragged the school building a half-mile from its lot and threatened the students with death.