Princeton University's Ties To Slavery Explored During Symposium

PRINCETON, NJ — Princeton University scholars and students exploring the university’s ties to slavery made some radical discoveries recently. Not only did a slave sale take place on campus, but the university’s first nine presidents were slaveholders at some point in their lives.

Princeton University Professor of History Martha A. Sandweiss led the Princeton and Slavery Project, according to the school. The project’s findings were recently released online, along with over 80 articles, four video documentaries, interactive maps and graphs, and several hundred primary source documents.

This will be the subject of a four days of panels, discussions, performances and other presentations related to the project, from Nov. 16-19. Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison will speak at a distinguished academic symposium. The symposium is set for Nov. 17-18, with Morrison speaking on Nov. 17.

Other featured speakers will include Sandweiss, Ruth Simmons (Brown University), Leslie Harris (Northwestern University), Eric Foner (Columbia University), and Danielle Allen (Harvard University).
McCarter Theatre will premiere seven newly-commissioned short plays based on historical documents uncovered as a part of the research project under the title “The Princeton and Slavery Plays.” Playwrights include: Nathan Alan Davis, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Dipika Guha, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kwame Kwei-Armah, McCarter Artistic Director and Resident Playwright Emily Mann, and Regina Taylor.

The Princeton University Art Museum will also host a public conversation with Titus Kaphar related to a new sculpture commissioned for the project that explores the ways in which people create identity, racial structures, and economies in visual form. Kaphar’s existing body of work will be featured in an exhibition at the museum. The exhibit relates more broadly to representations of history in the United States, and in particular how African American identity is constructed and reinforced by their visual representation and/or absence in art.

The symposium will be webcast live at: http://mediacentrallive.princeton.edu/. For more on the project, visit https://slavery.princeton.edu.

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