A Fuller Measure of Witherspoon on Slavery

Life and Books and Everything

Clearly Reformed

Books, Religion & Spirituality, Arts, Christianity

4.6 • 635 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Princeton University president, teacher, preacher, politician, Declaration of Independence signatory, and a slave owner. As an early American patriot, John Witherspoon has been the center of some recent controversy as a statue of him may be removed from historic Princeton University library grounds.

In this episode, Kevin reads from his article written for “Princetonians for Free Speech” and adds new information to his December 2022 article regarding Witherspoon's estate at the end of his life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Greetings and salutations. This is Kevin DeYoung and you're listening to Life and Books and Everything.
0:15.0	I wanted to read one more article that I've written on this John Witherspoon statue controversy at Princeton. No, this is not my
0:23.8	life's calling. I don't plan on writing on this again. But since there was some new historical
0:30.6	evidence that I was able to look at, did want to write a follow-up piece to the earlier article I did in December.
0:40.1	This one again is on the website Princetonians for free speech,
0:45.8	and it's entitled A Fuller Measure of Witherspoon on slavery.
0:51.0	As of the online publication of this essay,
0:57.2	Princeton University is still deciding what to do with Witherspoon.
1:13.3	The Council of the Princeton University Committee on Naming is forming its recommendation in response to the petition initiated in May 2022 to remove from its place of honor and Firestone Library Plaza between East Pine Hall and the chapel,
1:22.1	the statue of John Witherspoon, 1723, 1794, Princeton's sixth president, who led the then-college of New Jersey from 1768 until his death 26 years later. This statue, commissioned by the Princeton University Board of
1:30.5	Trustees, was dedicated in 2001. The initiators of the petition have cited as reasons for the
1:36.5	statue's removal, their beliefs that Witherspoon, quote, participated actively in the
1:41.2	enslavement of human beings and used his scholarly gifts to defend the practice.
1:46.8	One opponent of the proposed removal of Witherspoon's statues submitted that the petitioners have,
1:52.5	quote, a tragic misunderstanding of the full measure of Witherspoon on slavery.
1:58.5	In this present essay, I present new evidence on the duration and nature of Witherspoon's ownership of slaves. I this present essay, I present I present evidence on the duration and nature of
2:02.4	Witherspoon's ownership of slaves. I also briefly note
2:04.8	Witherspoon's connections to other evangelical Christians active
2:08.5	in the abolition movement. By reviewing these facts,
2:11.6	some of them not mentioned before in any of the secondary
2:14.2	literature, I hope to present a fuller measure of
2:17.4	Witherspoon on slavery.
	...

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