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Stories

The Manumission of Prime
by Izzy Kasdin | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
In 1786, an enslaved man named Prime became one of only three enslaved people to be manumitted by act of the New Jersey legislature in exchange for his service during the Revolutionary War.

Escape from Princeton
by Joseph Yannielli | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
In 1819, Princeton Mayor Erkuries Beatty engaged a recent College of New Jersey graduate to recapture his runaway slave, Joe. The incident underscores the terror and uncertainty of enslavement in central Jersey.

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.

Cezar Trent
by Brett Diehl | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Cezar Trent, one of the elite free Black citizens of antebellum Princeton, was the employee of a prominent landowner, the object of a town resident's published recollections, and a slave owner himself.

Aaron Burr Sr.
by Shelby Lohr | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Aaron Burr Sr. (1716-1757), an influential scholar and religious leader of the colonial period, served as Princeton’s second president from 1748 to 1757. He oversaw the college’s move to its permanent campus in Princeton, and owned slaves while living in the President’s House.
Primary Sources

"Negro Servant"
March 30, 1784 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
An ad to sell a slave placed by Samuel Stanhope Smith in 1784.

"Negro Wench" to be sold by Thomas Wiggins
January 10, 1781 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Newspaper advertisement for a slave sale

"One Thousand Dollars Reward" for Caesar
November 15, 1780 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Newspaper advertisement for a runaway slave

"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

Stolen Mare
June 14, 1780 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Newspaper advertisement for a stolen horse, believed to have been taken by a runaway slave.