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"The Celebrated Alexander Dumas Watkins": Princeton's First Black Instructor
by R. Isabela Morales | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Alexander Dumas Watkins (1855-1903), a self-taught biologist, conducted significant scientific research alongside Princeton University professors from the 1880s until his death in 1903. Despite holding no formal academic position, Watkins worked in Princeton’s laboratories and taught courses as the University’s first black instructor—and the last until the 1950s.

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.

Princeton’s Founding Trustees
by Michael R. Glass | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
A firm majority of Princeton's founding trustees (sixteen out of twenty-three) bought, sold, traded, or inherited slaves during their lifetimes.

Princeton and Abolition
by Joseph Yannielli | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861), Civil War (1861-1865)
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.

Navigating Slavery: Robert F. Stockton and the Limits of Antislavery Thought
by Craig Hollander | Antebellum (1820-1861), Civil War (1861-1865)
Robert Field Stockton, a naval officer and supporter of the American Colonization Society, embodied the College of New Jersey’s struggle—and eventual failure—to reconcile the cruelties of slavery with a desire to encourage harmony between the North and South.
Primary Sources

"Nights of the Nightshirt at Princeton"
June 22, 1924 | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Photograph of members of the Princeton Class of 1920 dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes at the University's 1924 Reunions celebration.

Constant
July 11, 1774 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Newspaper advertisement for a runaway slave

"Anti-Slavery Convention"
September 5, 1839 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Description of the first State Convention of Abolitionists in New Jersey.

"Case of Aaron W. Kitchell"
September 8, 1836 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Advertisement for the capture of Aaron W. Kitchell (class of 1829), a suspected abolitionist.

Clara Voorhees Obiturary
January 26, 1892 | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
New York Times obituary for Clara Voorhees, a former slave and longtime chef at Princeton.
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Princeton & Slavery: A Paradox of American History
Thursday, May 3
6:30 pm Reception; 7 pm Presentation and Discussion
Princeton Club of NY (15 West 43rd St.)