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Princeton’s reputation as a moderately conservative college with a large proportion of southern students attracted the sons of wealthy slave-owning families such as the Joneses of Liberty County, Georgia.

Peter Scudder rose from humble beginnings to become a successful businessman and a notable member of the free Black community in Princeton.

The financial contributions of Moses Taylor Pyne (Class of 1877), one of Princeton's most prominent benefactors, reveal the complex relationship between Princeton, the American sugar trade, and the slave economy.

Princeton University, founded as the College of New Jersey in 1746, exemplifies the central paradox of American history. From the start, liberty and slavery were intertwined.

The lives and careers of Princeton’s early students from Georgia, who went on to hold prominent political positions during the colonial and Revolutionary periods, illustrate one of the key paradoxes of American history: the interconnection of slavery and liberty from the time of the country's founding.