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11Results for "August 11, 1795"
Stories

Princeton in the West Indies
by Jessica R. Mack | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Under the leadership of President Witherspoon, the College of New Jersey launched an ill-fated campaign to secure donations from slaveholding planter elites in the West Indies.

Princeton's Slaveholding Presidents
by R. Isabela Morales | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
Princeton’s first nine presidents all owned enslaved people at some point in their lives. Though widely considered to be forward-thinking religious, intellectual, and political leaders in the 18th and 19th centuries, they failed to align their practices with their ideals—embodying the tensions between liberty and slavery that characterized American life from the colonial period to the Civil War.

Princeton and Slavery: Holding the Center
by Martha A. Sandweiss and Craig Hollander | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861), Civil War (1861-1865), Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Princeton University, founded as the College of New Jersey in 1746, exemplifies the central paradox of American history. From the start, liberty and slavery were intertwined.

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.

Princetonians in Georgia
by Trip Henningson | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
The lives and careers of Princeton’s early students from Georgia, who went on to hold prominent political positions during the colonial and Revolutionary periods, illustrate one of the key paradoxes of American history: the interconnection of slavery and liberty from the time of the country's founding.
Primary Sources

Will of Jacob Ker
August 11, 1795 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
The will of Jacob Ker, Class of 1758, who served as a college tutor.