Canterbury is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,045 at the 2020 census. History The area was settled by English colonists in the 1680s as Peagscomsuck. It consisted mainly of land north of Norwich, south of New Roxbury, Massachusetts (now Woodstock, Connecticut), and west of the Quinebaug River, Peagscomsuck Island, and the Plainfield Settlement. In 1703 this section was officially separated from Plainfield and named The Town of Canterbury. The town's name is a transfer from Canterbury, England. Prudence Crandall's School (1831–1834) In 1832, Prudence Crandall, a schoolteacher raised as a Quaker, stirred controversy when she opened the Canterbury Female Boarding School and admitted black girls as students. Prominent Canterbury resident Andrew T. Judson led efforts against the school. The Connecticut General Assembly passed a "Black Law", which prohibited the education of black children from out of state. Crandall persisted in teaching, and in 1833 was arrested and kept in jail overnight. Unsuccessful and long legal proceedings were mounted but violence by a mob of Canterbury residents forced the closure of the school in 1834. Crandall left the state and never returned. Connecticut repealed the Black Law in 1838. In 1877 the town of Canterbury recognized Crandall, who had moved to Elk Falls, Kansas, with a small pension. Crandall, who by then was living in poverty, said that this helped improve her living condition. She died in 1881. Legacy and honors In 1995, the Connecticut General Assembly designated Prudence Crandall as the state's official heroine because she opened the first school in the United States for black girls. The school still stands in Canterbury. It is now operated as the Prudence Crandall Museum. It has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, and it is the leading tourist attraction in Canterbury. In 2009 a life-size bronze statue of Prudence Crandall with an African-American student was installed in the state capital. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (0.62%) is water. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 4,692 people, 1,717 households, and 1,339 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 1,762 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.34% White, 0.36% African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.30%