Art and Slavery at Princeton

An investigation of Princeton University’s largely unexamined social, financial, and ideological ties to American slavery reveals John Witherspoon’s complicated interactions with the issue. A signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the prominent proponents of American liberty, Witherspoon had an unclearly defined stance on slavery that reflected America’s conflicting attitudes toward enslavement. While many Americans were troubled by slavery, they were also economically dependent on it. In Princeton and across New Jersey, Witherspoon discussed moral issues regarding slavery. Indeed, during a moral philosophy lecture for undergraduates at Princeton, he announced his opposition to slavery and declared it unlawful to take away people’s “liberty by no better right than superior force.” Despite this, Witherspoon owned slaves at home. Tax records reveal that, for a number of years, he used slaves to help him farm his more than five hundred acres at Tusculum in Princeton, and the inventory of Witherspoon’s possessions taken at his death indicate that he left two slaves, valued at $100 each. 

In 1790, four years before his death, Witherspoon chaired a committee on the abolition of slavery in the New Jersey State Legislature. Echoing the sentiments of many northern advocates, who were sympathetic toward slaves while recognizing the State’s economic dependence on the institution, Witherspoon supported gradual emancipation and expected slavery to disappear in the near future. However, slavery was not officially abolished in the United States the end of the Civil War, in 1865, and a limited number of slaves were held in New Jersey until that date.