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Slavery and the 1820 Trustees
by Michael R. Glass | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
As the institution of slavery slowly declined in 18th and 19th-century New Jersey, the Trustees of 1820 reflected the changing face of pro- and antislavery thought in the state—variously owning slaves, supporting gradual emancipation or African colonization, and advocating for immediate abolition.

Princeton's Antebellum Boarding House Culture
by Megan Armknecht | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Between 1832 and 1863, more than 1,000 students lived in off-campus boarding houses while attending the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Certain boarding houses catered to large numbers of southern students.

Betsey Stockton
by Gregory Nobles | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
Betsey Stockton (1798?-1865), enslaved as a child in the household of Princeton president Ashbel Green, became a prominent and respected educator in Princeton, Philadelphia, and the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawai'i).

Legislating Slavery in New Jersey
by Geneva Smith | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
The development of New Jersey’s legal code relating to slavery was marked by internal divisions. Ultimately, slavery was not fully abolished in the state until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

Princeton and Liberia
by Joseph Yannielli | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Princeton affiliates helped to establish Liberia as an African colony for Black American emigrants. Robert Wood Sawyer (Class of 1838) served as a missionary among the Kru people, in the territory south of the colony.
Primary Sources

1820 Census Entry for James Carnahan
1820 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
1820 census entry for Princeton president James Carnahan, who owned two slaves while living in Georgetown, Washington D.C.

Robert Jefferson Breckinridge Portrait
1820 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
A portrait of Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (class of 1820, non-graduate), a student from Kentucky who was a strong advocate for African colonization.

Charles F. Mercer
1820 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Portrait of Charles F. Mercer (class of 1797), a founder of the American Colonization Society.

Letter from Gilbert R. McCoy
September 10, 1835 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Letter from Gilbert R. McCoy (class of 1837) to Gilbert R. Fox (class of 1835), describing a student-led attack against an abolitionist.

Gravestone of Philip Lindsley
| Antebellum (1820-1861)
A photo of Philip Lindsley's gravestone in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived the last decades of his life.