History, Amended

The Civil War ended slavery in America. It also set in motion a false narrative: that slavery was a Southern problem, not an American one. In April, Wendy Warren ’97, assistant professor of history at Princeton, was back on campus to discuss New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America (Liveright/W.W. Norton)—a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Through extensive research, Warren summons voices of slaves who fought, fled, and even killed themselves to escape horrific conditions in New England. One tragic tale, which Warren first encountered during her graduate studies: a firsthand account of rape and forced breeding in 17th-century New England. The story comes from the journal of an English traveler staying in the home of a colonist in Boston. The visitor was awakened by the screams of an unidentified slave woman at his door. “I’m often asked how I came to write this book,” Warren said. “This woman is how I came to write this book.”