The Education of Betsey Stockton

- Blurb -

The first full-length biography of an extraordinary woman born into slavery who, through grit and determination, became a historic social and educational leader. The life of Betsey Stockton (ca. 1798-1865) is a remarkable story of a Black woman' s journey from slavery to emancipation, from antebellum New Jersey to the Hawai' ian 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' s 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 Hawai' i 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' s at once a revealing lesson on the struggles of Stockton' s times and a fresh inspiration for our own.