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News about the College of New Jersey and its students—including their connections to the South—spread across the country through multiple forms of print media.

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.

John Anthony Simmons (1802-1868) was a former slave, abolitionist, businessman, philanthropist, and prominent member of the Princeton community.

The work of collecting and organizing primary source material on Princeton’s connections to slavery required coordinated efforts of faculty, students, and library staff. This essay highlights some of the ways Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library staff have provided valuable specialized knowledge for the Princeton & Slavery Project.

Samuel Stanhope Smith, Princeton’s seventh president (1795-1812), was an early defender of the unity of mankind—arguing that environment, not innate biological differences, determined one’s race.  His convictions, however, did not prevent him from owning slaves himself, and his teachings ultimately influenced Princeton alumni to establish the American Colonization Society.