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Stories
The Minstrel Tradition at Princeton University
by April C. Armstrong | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Princeton students performed in blackface in the 19th and 20th centuries, until as late as 1949. The legacy of Princeton’s minstrel traditions continues to live on in American culture through the popular folk song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”
The Skeleton in the Basement
by Dan Ewert | Antebellum (1820-1861)
In 1853, two Princeton alumni described an event in which anatomy students stole a body from the local Black cemetery. Though potentially fictional, their story illustrates how elite white men claimed authority over Black bodies beyond the institution of slavery.
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 Whig-Cliosophic Society and Slavery
by Samuel Niu | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820), Antebellum (1820-1861), Civil War (1861-1865)
Princeton’s rival Whig and Clio societies provided students with powerful platforms to discuss controversial issues of the day, frequently slavery and emancipation. From the late 18th century to the outbreak of the Civil War, members of both societies consistently opposed the emancipation of slaves, fostering a conservative, anti-abolition intellectual climate on campus.
Slavery in the Curriculum
by Geneva Smith | Colonial & Early National (1746-1820)
John Witherspoon and Samuel Stanhope Smith’s curriculum emphasized Scottish moral philosophy, providing early Princeton students with a new philosophical framework for opposing slavery even as pro-slavery apologists used the same philosophical concepts to defend the practice of owning slaves.
Primary Sources
Score of "Levee Song"
1894 | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Score of "Levee Song," published in Carmina Princetonia: The University Song Book in 1894.
"Miscellaneous Organizations"
1890 | Reconstruction to Present (1865-)
Illustration depicting posters for "Miscellaneous Organizations" at Princeton, including minstrel shows, published in the Bric-a-Brac in 1890.
Response to Effigy Burning
December 17, 1859 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
A response to the burning of effigies at the College of New Jersey, printed in the Columbian Register of New Haven.
Commencement Address by James McDowell
September 26, 1838 | Antebellum (1820-1861)
A pro-slavery address delivered by James McDowell (class of 1817) at the Princeton commencement for the class of 1838.
Autograph Book Entry by R. McC. Shepherd
1861 | Civil War (1861-1865)
Autograph book entry by R. McC. Shepherd to William B. Lane (class of 1861), with sketches of "college life."