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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.

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.

Princeton’s faculty and students actively opposed abolition, creating a climate of fear and intimidation around the subject during the 19th century. Although some Princeton affiliates were critical of slavery, the institution demonstrated a catastrophic failure of leadership on the greatest moral question of the age.

Aaron Burr Jr. (Class of 1772), the third Vice President of the United States, fathered two children by a woman of color from Calcutta, India. Their son, John Pierre Burr (1792-1864), would become an activist, abolitionist, and conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Erkuries Beatty (1759-1823), the second mayor of the Borough of Princeton, was one of a tight network of local elites who presided over college, church, and borough governance while continuing to benefit financially from slavery during an era of gradual emancipation.