Although Prudence Crandall grew up as a North American Quaker, she admitted that she was not acquainted with many black people or abolitionists. She discovered the problems that plagued black people through the abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", which she learned of through her housekeeper, "a young black lady", whose fiancé was the son of the paper's local agent. After reading "The Liberator", Prudence Crandall said in an earlier account that she "contemplated for a while, the manner in which I might best serve the people of color."