46Results for "political-thought"
Stories
Presbyterians and Slavery
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A truly national denomination from the 18th century to the Civil War, American Presbyterianism encompassed a wide range of viewpoints on slavery. Prominent leaders in the church were slaveholders, moderate antislavery advocates, and abolitionists.
Stephen Alexander and Alfred Scudder
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Stephen Alexander, Princeton’s first astronomy professor, held moderate antislavery views but denied the equality of Black and white Americans. At the same time, he may have employed an African American man named Alfred Scudder as an assistant on campus.
The KKK and Princeton's 1955 Emmett Till Petition
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When three Princeton students organized a petition protesting the acquittal of Emmett Till’s murderers in 1955, classmates dressed in KKK robes threatened their lives. Though the campus newspaper and Princeton administration characterized the incident as a “prank,” the event revealed deep divisions on campus over issues of racial justice.
A Moment in Nassau Hall
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In 1783, four somberly dressed men rode into town to petition Congress: End slavery.
Henry Kollock
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Henry Kollock (1778-1819) was a Princeton professor, pastor, and slave owner. He appeared in the first fugitive slave narrative: Life of William Grimes, a Runaway Slave.
Primary Sources
"An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion"
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Samuel Stanhope Smith's "Essay on the Cause of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species," originally published in 1787.
"A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin"
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Excerpt from Harriet Beecher Stowe's book A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in one year after the original novel.
"On the Relation of Master and Servant"
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"On the Relation of Master and Servant," a lecture delivered by President Samuel Stanhope Smith at the College of New Jersey.
"An Address Delivered before the American Whig and Cliosophic Societies"
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Address delivered by John M. Scott at the annual commencement in 1836.
"The Early Bootlick Gets the Grade"
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Excerpt from an 1860 play mocking an abolitionist, published in the Nassau Rake.