Tom discusses the lives and influence of sisters Sarah, Mary, and Olive Harris, local residents in the 1840s. Sarah and Mary were among the first Black students at Prudence Crandall's school and inspired her to establish an all-Black female academy in this time of turbulence and growth in the movements for abolition, education, and Black suffrage. Olive was the wife of Frederick Olnay, a Black American officer aboard the whaler, Merrimac. The sisters were also connected to local and national figures such as Ichabod Pease, Frances Manwaring Caulkins, and Frederick Douglass.

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