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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.

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.

African Americans on Campus, 1746-1876
by Joseph Yannielli | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
African Americans were a constant presence at the College of New Jersey as servants, support staff, research and teaching assistants, and students. They labored under harsh conditions on a campus dominated by racism and white supremacy.

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.
Primary Sources

"Negro Man and Two Negro Boys"
January 30, 1775 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Newspaper advertisement for a slave sale in Princeton.

Peet
November 14, 1774 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
Newspaper advertisement for a runaway slave

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

"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.

"One Negro Man, One Negro Woman and two Children"
July 13, 1752 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
A notice of the estate sale of Princeton trustee William Smith.
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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.)