200Results for "alumni"
Stories
The Alumni Subscription Campaign of 1835
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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.
Aaron Burr Jr. and John Pierre Burr: A Founding Father and his Abolitionist Son
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Aaron Burr Jr. (Class of 1772), the third Vice President of the United States, fathered two children by a woman of color from Calcutta, India. Their son, John Pierre Burr (1792-1864), would become an activist, abolitionist, and conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Princeton’s Civil War Memorial
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Nassau Hall’s memorial atrium—built in the 1920s—reflects the era’s reconciliationist politics, erasing the role of slavery and emancipation in the Civil War and granting moral equivalency to the Union and Confederate causes.
Thomas Carter Ruffin
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Thomas Carter Ruffin, Princeton alumnus and later Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, propounded the legal doctrine of slave-owners’ absolute power over their human property in the 1829 case State v. Mann.
James Moore Wayne
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James Moore Wayne (1790-1867), a Princeton graduate from Georgia, personally owned slaves and served on the Supreme Court that denied African Americans citizenship in the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Yet he remained a strong Unionist during the Civil War, embodying the dissonant relationship between slavery and liberty in the United States.
Primary Sources
Notice of Alumni Meeting
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A note that the alumni of South Carolina met to raise funds to rebuild Nassau Hall after the 1802 fire.
"An Address Delivered Before the Alumni Association of Nassau-Hall"
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A commencement address given by Samuel Southard (class of 1804) in 1832, calling on alumni to donate to the college.
Commencement Address by James McDowell
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A pro-slavery address delivered by James McDowell (class of 1817) at the Princeton commencement for the class of 1838.
Brooks Emeny
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Photo of Brooks Emeny (class of 1924), a member of Princeton's Immigration Restriction League.
John C. Breckinridge during the Mexican-American War
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Photograph of Major John C. Breckinridge in US Army Uniform during the Mexican-American War.
News
The Princeton & Slavery Project at the Thrive Conference
Princeton University, 11/5/19
Martha A. Sandweiss, Professor of History discussed the Princeton & Slavery Project with Melanie Lawson ’76, Journalist and Television News Anchor, at "Thrive: Empowering and Celebrating Princeton's Black Alumni."
Princeton and Slavery: Our Original Sin
Princeton Alumni Weekly, 11/6/17
Princeton reckons with its connections to slavery.
Princeton and Slavery: Plays That Probe Our Original Sin
Princeton Alumni Weekly, 11/8/17
At McCarter Theatre, seven works examine Princeton’s connections with slavery.
Atelier Course Explores Princeton’s Slavery Ties in Song
Princeton Alumni Weekly, 1/4/18
Alumni Peter Mills ’95 and Cara Reichel ’96 of Prospect Theater Company taught a Princeton Atelier seminar in which undergraduates created original musical theater works inspired by the work of the Princeton & Slavery Project.
Princeton's Complicated Legacy: Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson, and Recalling a Slave Named Jimmy Johnson
Philly.com, 8/9/18
New efforts at one of the nation’s oldest elite universities to embrace and reveal its complicated past and become more welcoming to an increasingly diverse student body.
Events
"Facing Slavery: Princeton Family Stories": A Documentary Film by Melvin McCray '74
Friday, November 17 & Sunday, November 19
Princeton Garden Theatre, 160 Nassau Street
Videos
Looking Back: Reflections of Black Princeton Alumni
Looking Back: Reflections of Black Princeton Alumni is a 75 minute documentary written and edited by Melvin McCray (Class of 1974) and produced by McCray and Calvin Norman (Class of 1977) on the occasion of Princeton University’s 250th anniversary in 1996.