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Tensions between Unionist and Secessionist students reached their peak in 1861, shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War.

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.

Local academies in Princeton helped maintain the relationship between the College of New Jersey and the South.

Extensive research by the Princeton University Archives staff has determined that over 600 Princeton students and alumni fought in the Civil War. Of these, 86 died in the conflict—47 for the Confederacy, and 39 for the Union.

The extensive correspondence between antebellum Princeton student Henry Kirke White Muse and his slave-owning father illustrates the College of New Jersey’s appeal to southern students as well as its conservatism on the issue of slavery.