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Reverend I. W. L. Roundtree
by April C. Armstrong | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Reverend I. W. L. Roundtree, who attended the Princeton Theological Seminary in the 1890s and received a Master’s degree from the College of New Jersey in 1895, was one of Princeton’s earliest African American graduates. He may also have been the first and only former slave to graduate from the college.

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.

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.

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.

Erased Pasts and Altered Legacies: Princeton’s First African American Students
by April C. Armstrong | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, several African American men attended Princeton as graduate students. Princeton president Woodrow Wilson’s administration may have attempted to erase their presence from institutional memory, creating an inaccurate historical justification for excluding black students from the university.
Primary Sources

"Rev. I. W. L. Roundtree Has Risen From Slavery's Estate"
August 27, 1904 | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Newspaper article profiling I. W. L. Roundtree, a late-19th century Princeton graduate who was born a slave.

"Murderer Freed, Will Work Here"
October 16, 1909 | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Article announcing the release of John Collins, an African American man convicted of the murder of a Princeton undergraduate in 1895.