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Stories

Strategies for Escape: A Study of Fugitive Slave Ads (1770-1819)
by Andre Fernando Biehl | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Runaway slaves from the Princeton area used sophisticated knowledge of the late-18th and early-19th century’s changing legal and political landscape when they planned their escapes, forcing slave-owners to acknowledge their resourcefulness and determination to liberate themselves.

Princetonians in Virginia
by Ian Iverson | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
The College of New Jersey attracted large numbers of Virginia students in the 18th and 19th centuries, contributing to Princeton’s reputation as a school for southerners. This essay focuses on three students from Virginia whose careers as clergymen and educators reflected evolving arguments about slavery and emancipation from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War.

Princeton’s Fugitive Slaves
by Joseph Yannielli | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
Princeton residents published at least 28 newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves between 1774 and 1818. Each tells a unique story of courage and resistance in the face of tremendous odds.

The Whig-Cliosophic Society and Slavery
by Samuel Niu | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861), Civil War (1861-1865)
Princeton’s rival Whig and Clio societies provided students with powerful platforms to discuss controversial issues of the day, frequently slavery and emancipation. From the late 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War, members of both societies consistently opposed the emancipation of slaves, fostering a conservative, anti-abolition intellectual climate on campus.

Princeton and the Confederacy
by W. Barksdale Maynard | Civil War (1861-1865)
Hundreds of Princeton alumni served the Confederacy as soldiers, officers, and political leaders. Yet Princeton’s close involvement with the Confederate States of America has received surprisingly little scholarly attention until recently.
Primary Sources

"Declaration of Independence"
1819 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence." Princeton president John Witherspoon is pictured in the background facing the large table, the second seated figure from the (viewer's) right.

Runaway Slave Ads by Month (1770-1819)
| Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Graph showing the number of runaway slave ads published in the greater Princeton area between 1770 and 1819, by month.

Runaway Slave Ads by Quinquennial (1770-1819)
| Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Graph showing the number of runaway slave ads published in the greater Princeton area between 1770 and 1819.

Letter from Erkuries Beatty
March 20, 1819 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
A letter from Mayor Beatty to James Hunter Ewing (class of 1818), describing the runaway slave Joe.