Primary Sources

An advertisement announcing the estate sale of President Samuel Finley, held at the President's House on campus.

Inventory from the estate of John Maclean Sr., listing two slaves, a "Negro Girl Sal" and "Negro Boy Charles."

Richard Stockton submitted this account to the Trustees of the College of New Jersey after hiring out an enslaved man named Cesar to the college for unspecified work. Although Princeton as an institution never owned enslaved people, this document shows that the college did directly engage enslaved laborers for work on campus.

Photograph of former slave James Collins Johnson.

A list of southern students excused from school due to the outbreak of the Civil War.