Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Education of Betsey Stockton: An Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom

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

Nobles, Gregory

Hardcover

Biographies General19th Century United States HistoryBlack American Studies

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 022669772X
ISBN13: 9780226697727
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: Jun 13 2022
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
A perceptive and inspiring 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.

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