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“Let the Southerns Come Here”: Letters of a Slaveholding Father and Son
by Paris Amanda Spies-Gans | Antebellum (1820-1861)
The extensive correspondence between antebellum Princeton student Henry Kirke White Muse and his slave-owning father illustrates the College of New Jersey’s appeal to southern students as well as its conservatism on the issue of slavery.

Princeton and Slavery: Holding the Center
by Martha A. Sandweiss and Craig Hollander | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861), Civil War (1861-1865), Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
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.

Princeton and the Civil War
by W. Barksdale Maynard | Civil War (1861-1865)
The Civil War divided Princeton as well as the United States along regional lines, complicating the university’s patriotic history of wartime service as students and alumni fought in both the Union and Confederate forces.

The Princeton Plan
by Meagan Raker | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
In 1948, after a century of segregation, the town of Princeton integrated the white Nassau Street School and the black Witherspoon Street School with a system called the “Princeton Plan.” Contemporary reactions to desegregation revealed Princeton’s racial divisions as well as the black community’s commitment to education.

Princeton and the Colonization Movement
by Craig Hollander | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861)
Founded and supported by 19th-century Princeton alumni, the American Colonization Society promoted the repatriation of freed slaves to a colony in Africa. Ultimately, however, colonization was more of an intellectual movement for moderately antislavery whites than a practical option for free blacks.
Primary Sources

"Letters on the Colonization Society"
1832 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Pamphlet supporting the American Colonization Society, published in response to "the ardent opposition" of "some of our white citizens, and by a number of the free coloured population."

Letter from Joseph T. Crawford to the Captain-General of Cuba
May 16, 1859 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
Documents that reveal the simultaneous demand for cargo ships and slaves.

"Rebellion at Princeton"
January 31,1817 | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
A letter from Princeton detailing the 1817 riots, published in an Alexandria newspaper.

President Harold Dodds to Mrs. Harvey S. Firestone Jr.
December 30, 1946 | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
1946 letter from Princeton President Harold Dodds to Harvey Firestone Jr.'s wife, thanking her for the "generous Christmas present" of Firestone Company shares that she and her husband donated to Princeton that year.

Letter from Robert Jefferson Breckinridge
September 1, 1864 | Civil War (1861-1865)
Letter from Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (class of 1820, non-graduate) to his son William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, discussing the capture of Joseph Breckinridge by the Confederate Army.