Noyes Academy

Located at the Old North Church, Canaan, NH

On August 10, 1835, a mob from Canaan and neighboring towns stormed Noyes Academy, one of the nation’s first racially integrated co-ed schools.  Attaching teams of oxen to the building, they dragged it off its foundation and hauled it down the road.

As tensions mounted, Henry Highland Garnet, a twenty-year-old formerly enslaved Black student at the Academy and future abolitionist leader, stood firm on these grounds against the mob.  He and his fellow students prepared for the worst, molding bullets and fortifying the George Kimball House, their boarding residence.

Around 11 p.m., a rider fired at the house, but Garnet swiftly retaliated with a double-barreled shotgun blast through the window, dispersing the attackers and protecting those inside.  This act of courage marked a defining moment in Garnet's life and in the fight for educational and racial equality, underscoring the bravery of those who dared to pursue knowledge against the forces of oppression.