8Results for "presidents-united-states"
Stories
Endowed Professorships
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Of Princeton's more than 160 endowed professorships and lectureships, four honor men who derived their fortunes from slave labor or contributed to the legacy of slavery in New Jersey and the United States.
James Madison
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James Madison, Princeton alumnus and fourth President of the United States, held contradictory views on slavery throughout his life—arguing that slavery was incompatible with Revolutionary principles even as he owned over one hundred slaves on his Virginia plantation, brought enslaved people to the White House, and ultimately sold them for personal profit.
Lincoln and the Election of 1860
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Princeton students engaged in heated debates over slavery during the contentious 1860 election, in which New Jersey was the only northern state where Abraham Lincoln lost the popular vote.
The Princeton Immigration Restriction League (1922-1924)
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In 1922, Princeton affiliates founded a chapter of the Immigration Restriction League (IRL) on campus, advocating for restrictions on non-western European immigration into the United States. Though the organization dissolved in 1924, the IRL leaders’ commitment to white supremacy extended into their professional lives as influential 20th-century scholars.
Primary Sources
James Madison
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A portrait of James Madison (class of 1771) by John Vanderlyn.
Farmington
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A photograph of Farmington, George Divers's plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia, where John Bryan lodged in 1802.
Paul Jennings
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A portrait of Paul Jennings, James Madison's enslaved manservant who worked at the White House.
W. E. B. DuBois's "Open Letter to Woodrow Wilson"
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Open letter to United States President Woodrow Wilson from African American scholar and civil rights activist W. E. B. DuBois. In the letter, DuBois comments on Wilson's "peculiar lack of personal acquaintance with individual black men."