| Hosted by | New Haven Museum |
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| Details | The life of Betsey Stockton (c.1798 – 1865) is a remarkable story 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. Join us for “The Education of Betsey Stockton: An Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom,” with Dr. Gregory Nobles, Professor Emeritus of History, at Georgia Tech. Co-sponsored by the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site & Archives. Limited in-person attendance registration at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/428120779777. Virtual attendance: Zoom and FB Live. Virtual registration is at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/428128452727/. Based on Nobles’ book of the same title, the lecture will provide an inspiring look at the life of Stockton, a member of the Second Company of New England Protestant missionaries that departed from New Haven’s Tomlinson’s Wharf for Hawai‘i in November 1822. Stockton kept a diary of the voyage — excerpts of which appeared in New Haven newspapers — and a great deal of what is known of the trip is from her firsthand accounts. As a child, Stockton was “given, as a slave” to the household of Reverend 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 her education to benefit other people of color, first in Hawai‘i as a missionary, where she tutored the King’s son and opened a school for Hawaiian children from the so-called “common” class. On returning home to Princeton, she opened several schools for students of color and was founding member of the Witherspoon Street Church, Princeton’s first Presbyterian church for people of color. Today, the Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies is named in tribute to her at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Stockton became a founder and a leader engaged in the day-to-day business of building community and a revered figure within Princeton’s Black population. During his NHM presentation, Nobles will focus on Stockton’s life prior to her 1822 departure from New Haven to Hawai‘i. “I hope people will appreciate how truly exceptional it was for a young woman born into slavery to educate herself for such a calling, to commit herself to such a mission, and, in the process, to free herself from such a racially-conflicted society as the U.S. in the early 19th century,” Nobles says. He also aims to help the public understand how much slavery and racism pervaded the North as well as the South, and how Stockton’s teaching of children of color — first Hawaiian, then Black — was not just a job, but a means of empowering them to face the racial dangers that surrounded them. In the end, he argues, Stockton’s persistence was a form of resistance. |
| Admission | FREE |
| Virtual Meeting | |
| Location | New Haven Museum |
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| More Info | info link |