The Education of Betsey Stockton: An Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom

Betsey Stockton was a Black woman born into slavery who became a historic social and educational leader. She was given to Rev. Ashbel Green as a child and emancipated after reading books in his library. Stockton used her education to benefit other people of color, founding religious and educational institutions in Hawai i, Philadelphia, and Princeton. Nobles' biography reveals her struggles and inspires us to challenge society's racial obstacles.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 13 June 2022
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

The life of Betsey Stockton (ca. 1798-1865) is a remarkable tale of a Black woman's journey from slavery to emancipation, from antebellum New Jersey to the Hawaiian Islands, and from her own self-education to a lifetime of teaching others—all told against the backdrop of the early United States' pervasive racism. It is a compelling chronicle of a critical time in American history and a testament to the courage and commitment of a woman whose persistence grew into a potent form of resistance.

When Betsey Stockton was a child, she was given as a slave to the household of Rev. Ashbel Green, a prominent pastor and later the president of what is now Princeton University. Although she never went to school, she devoured the books in Green's library. After being emancipated, she used that education to benefit other people of color, first in Hawaii as a missionary, then Philadelphia, and, for the last three decades of her life, Princeton—a college town with a genteel veneer that never fully hid its racial hostility. Betsey Stockton became a revered figure in Princeton's sizeable Black population, a founder of religious and educational institutions, and a leader engaged in the day-to-day business of building communities.

In this first book-length telling of Betsey Stockton's story, Gregory Nobles illuminates both a woman and her world, following her around the globe, and showing how a determined individual could challenge her society's racial obstacles from the ground up. It is at once a revealing lesson on the struggles of Stockton's times and a fresh inspiration for our own.

Weight: 554g
Dimension: 162 x 235 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226697727