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Lydia, Sal, and Charles were enslaved people who lived in early 19th-century Princeton. John Maclean Sr., a Princeton professor and the father of one of the college’s future presidents, owned all three.

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.

The development of New Jersey’s legal code relating to slavery was marked by internal divisions. Ultimately, slavery was not fully abolished in the state until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

James Collins Johnson, a fugitive slave freed after an 1843 trial in Princeton, became a prominent figure in town and on campus over the course of his many decades working at the College of New Jersey.

Princeton’s early students from Kentucky reflected their state’s ambivalent attitude toward slavery. Though many Kentuckians opposed the institution and the state never seceded from the Union, slavery did not end in Kentucky until the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Prominent state and national leaders from Kentucky, including Princeton alumni, also supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.