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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.

In 1835, the Alumni Association of Nassau Hall responded to financial crisis with a fundraising campaign among Princeton alumni. Many of the donors who responded were southerners with ties to slavery.

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.

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.