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Stories

Joseph Clark in Virginia (1802-1803)
by R. Isabela Morales Rina Azumi, and Zena Kesselman | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
After a fire destroyed Nassau Hall in 1802, Princeton alumnus Joseph Clark canvassed Virginia on a nine-month fundraising mission. Throughout the trip, Clark relied on the hospitality and financial contributions of fellow Princeton alumni and their connections among Virginia’s slave-owning elite.

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.

Fundraising for Nassau Hall
by Ryan Dukeman | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Many of the donors and fundraisers who contributed to the construction of Nassau Hall had substantial personal, familial, or business ties to slavery and the slave trade.

Slavery in the Witherspoon Family
by Lesa Redmond | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
As Princeton president John Witherspoon’s children married and left New Jersey, their relationships to slavery were shaped by the political climate and economy of their new homes throughout the North and South.

James Madison
by Paris Amanda Spies-Gans | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
James Madison, Princeton alumnus and fourth President of the United States, held contradictory views on slavery throughout his life—arguing that slavery was incompatible with Revolutionary principles even as he owned over one hundred slaves on his Virginia plantation, brought enslaved people to the White House, and ultimately sold them for personal profit.
Primary Sources

"Negro Boy" to be sold by Samuel Stanhope Smith
November 20, 1780 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Newspaper advertisement for a slave sale by Professor Samuel Stanhope Smith

"Brandy ... 100 pipes Brandy"
1803 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
1803 New York Evening Post ad detailing trustee Robert Lenox's goods from around the globe.

1800 Federal Census Entry for Robert Lenox
1800 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
1800 Federal Census entry for trustee Robert Lenox.

Manumission Papers for Will
1796 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
1796 manumission papers for Will, a slave bound in service to trustee Charles Ewing's family.

Grave of Jonathan Edwards Sr.
2017 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Grave of Princeton president Jonathan Edwards Sr. in the Princeton Cemetery.