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Stories

Albert Dod
by Jessica R. Mack | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Albert Baldwin Dod (1805-1845) was a Princeton professor and a slaveholder at the time of the 1840 census.

Princeton Students Attempt to Lynch an Abolitionist
by Joseph Yannielli | Antebellum (1820-1861)
In September 1835, a crowd of students descended on Princeton’s African American neighborhood to apprehend an abolitionist. The assault underscored the presence on campus of a large number of students committed to slavery and white supremacy.

"The Celebrated Alexander Dumas Watkins": Princeton's First Black Instructor
by R. Isabela Morales | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Alexander Dumas Watkins (1855-1903), a self-taught biologist, conducted significant scientific research alongside Princeton University professors from the 1880s until his death in 1903. Despite holding no formal academic position, Watkins worked in Princeton’s laboratories and taught courses as the University’s first black instructor—and the last until the 1950s.

Princeton Academies and Slavery
by Zena Kesselman | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Local academies in Princeton helped maintain the relationship between the College of New Jersey and the South.

The Riot of 1846
by R. Isabela Morales | Antebellum (1820-1861)
In June 1846, more than a dozen Southern students mobbed, whipped, and nearly killed an African American man in Princeton—but only after fighting off another group of classmates who opposed them. This brief flashpoint of violence, in which Princeton students came to blows after dividing along regional lines, revealed the tensions over race and slavery present even at a college known for its moderate conservatism.
Primary Sources

1840 Slavery Census
1840 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
The 1840 Federal Census for Princeton, showing the local slave population.

Census Record for Albert Dod
1840 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Household records of professor and slaveholder Albert Dod in the 1840 US census.

Robert F. Stockton
1840 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Engraved portrait of Robert F. Stockton, an officer in the United States Navy who acquired the territory that would become Liberia on behalf of the American Colonization Society in 1821.

Lewis C. Gunn
1840s | Antebellum (1820-1861)
A portrait of seminary student and abolitionist Lewis C. Gunn with his young son.

Stephen Alexander
Undated | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Stephen Alexander, who joined the Princeton faculty as an astronomy professor in 1840.
News

Princeton & Slavery: The Scientist’s Assistant
Princeton Alumni Weekly, 11/8/17
Famed professor Joseph Henry had an indispensable helper in his lab: a free black man, Sam Parker.