Prime (b. 1755)
- Research Tips
-
This person of African descent 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.
- Identifier
- NJS-PER-02524
- Given Name
- Prime
- Alternate Name
- Priam
- Birth Date
- 1755
- Sex
- Male
- Biographical Description
-
Prime was a Black man born circa 1755. He was enslaved by Absalom Bainbridge and Absalom's wife Mary Bainbridge née Taylor in Princeton, New Jersey in the 1770s. He resided with the Bainbridge family at the Bainbridge House (which has been preserved and is now operated by the Princeton University Art Museum as a historical site and gallery on Nassau Street).
Prime relocated with Absalom Bainbridge to Flatbush, Kings County (in present-day Brooklyn, New York City) during the Revolutionary War and then ran away from Bainbridge and came back to New Jersey where he joined the war effort as a waggoner for the American troops in the hopes of earning freedom. After the war, Prime was reenslaved by a man named John Vanhorne of Rocky Hill, who claimed that he bought Prime from Absalom Bainbridge's father-in-law John Taylor. Prime was eventually freed by an act of the New Jersey legislature after a lengthy legal battle with Vanhorne. See Izzy Kasdin's Princeton & Slavery essay for details and primary sources related to Prime's story. - Keywords
- African descent person
- Princeton University history
- 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
- Jesse Bayker
- Linked Events
-
Primary Participant in:
- 1778-08-20 Freedom Seeking: Prime (Role: Runaway)
