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John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. [1] Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (1768–1794; now Princeton University ...
- American/Scottish
- Samuel Stanhope Smith
Witherspoon and Slavery. John Knox Witherspoon (1723-1794)—clergyman, educator, and founding father—served as Princeton’s sixth president from 1768 until his death in 1794. Born in Scotland and educated at the University of Edinburgh, Witherspoon was a prominent 18th-century intellectual associated with the moral philosophy of the ...
- Joseph Yannielli
- He baptized a young man who was enslaved in Scotland. Before immigrating to America, Witherspoon baptized James Montgomery, who was born in Virginia and sold to a merchant located near Glasgow, Scotland, where Witherspoon was a minister.
- He personally tutored two African men. Enslaved as children in what is now Ghana, Bristol Yamma and John Quamino endured the horrors of the Middle Passage before settling in Newport, Rhode Island.
- He condemned the British for offering freedom to enslaved Africans. Witherspoon preached and argued that American Colonists would become slaves to Britain if they did not break free from British rule.
- Witherspoon’s family profited from slave labor. While the logic of the American Revolution pushed some patriots, such as Princeton graduate Benjamin Rush, to embrace anti-slavery activism, Witherspoon took a different path.
Jeffry Morrison’s brief, excellent new book, John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, [1] both testifies to and partly redresses the neglect Witherspoon has suffered. Modern scholars, Morrison points out, “have not made much out of Witherspoon one way or another.”. For example, a standard text called The Forgotten ...
May 17, 2018 · WITHERSPOON, JOHN. (1723–1794). Signer, clergyman, college president, member of Congress. Scotland- New Jersey. Born in Gifford, Scotland, on 5 February 1723, Witherspoon was the son of a minister and followed his father's calling. At the early age of sixteen he earned a master of arts degree from the University of Edinburgh, getting his ...
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John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character.
Feb 5, 2024 · John Witherspoon died on 15 November 1794. He had been President of Princeton University, convening moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, and a Founding Father. John Adams, the 2nd President of the USA, called Witherspoon. as high a son of liberty as any man in America”.
