The Education of Betsey Stockton

Betsey Stockton's Odyssey is a remarkable saga of one woman's journey from slavery to freedom--and to leadership. Once the property of Princeton University president Ashbel Green, Stockton embarked on a remarkable life after Green emancipated her. She traveled as far as the Sandwich Islands as a missionary and teacher, eventually returning to Princeton in those roles, helping to found both the First Presbyterian Church of Colour and the town's public school for black children, where she taught for nearly thirty years. The story of her life details and enlivens the complexities of African American life in the antebellum north generally and in the southern-inflected town of Princeton in particular--