Absalom Bainbridge (1742-1807) · New Jersey Slavery Records

Guidance: This white person has 1 related event in the database, listed at the bottom of this page.

This person is related to Princeton University history. See our Princeton University research guide for more information about finding Princeton affiliates and campus locations in the New Jersey Slavery Records database.
Record Title: Absalom Bainbridge (1742-1807)
Identifier: NJS-PER-02523
Given Name: Absalom
Family Name: Bainbridge
Birth Date: 1742
Death Date: 1807
Sex: Male
Occupation: Medical and Funerary
Biographical Description: Absalom Brainbridge was an enslaver who lived at the Bainbridge House in Princeton in the 1770s. He was born in Maidenhead (now Lawrence) in 1742 and graduated from Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) in 1762. After pursuing medical training in New York, came back to New Jersey to practice medicine in Maidenhead and then in Princeton, where he lived at the aforementioned Bainbridge House on Nassau Street. There he held in slavery a Black man named Prime. Bainbridge was a British Loyalist, and he relocated to Flatbush in Kings County (present-day Brooklyn) during the American Revolution in 1777, taking Prime with him. Prime ran away from Bainbridge in 1778 and eventually attained freedom for his patriotic service during the Revolutionary War.
Keywords: white person; enslaver; Princeton University history
Place of Significance: Bainbridge House, Princeton; Princeton; Lawrence (formerly Maidenhead); Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York
Organization: Princeton University
Relationship to Princeton: Alumnus
Enslaver of: Prime (b. 1755)
Spouse of: Mary Taylor Bainbridge
Related Person: John Taylor
References: Izzy Kasdin, "The Manumission of Prime," Princeton & Slavery Project. https://slavery.princeton.edu/stories/the-manumission-of-prime.

Giles R. Wright and Gloria Halpern, “Prime: Another Resident of Bainbridge House,” Princeton History, no. 10, 1991.
Record Contributor: Indy Davis; Princeton & Slavery Project
Linked Sources: Author:

Runaway ad for Prime (listed as Priam), by Absalom Bainbridge (Runaway ad for Prime (listed as Priam), by Absalom Bainbridge, "Two Guineas Reward. ," Royal Gazette , August 22, 1778, p. 3.)
Linked Events: Additional Participant in:

1778-08-20 Freedom seeking: Prime (Role: Enslaver, Advertiser)