Lacking no legal means to prevent Prudence Crandall from opening her school, Andrew Judson, a local politician, pushed legislation through the Connecticut Assembly outlawing the establishment of schools "for the instruction of colored persons belonging to other states and countries." But the tide of abolitionism was turning, for five years later, in 1838, Connecticut's Black Law was repealed. Phillip Pearl, the chairman of the committee that had passed the Black Law, led the movement for its repeal, telling a friend, "I could weep tears of blood for the part I took in that matter--I now regard that law as utterly abominable."