Abstract
In her work, She Calls Herself Betsey Stockton: The Illustrated Odyssey of a Princeton Slave, Constance Escher presents the incredible journey of Elizabeth “Betsey” Stockton and the indelible mark she left on the lives of so many across the globe. Around 1798, Betsey was born a slave in the United States within the influential household of Robert Stockton. Betsey was transferred to Robert’s daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Rev. Ashbel Green. Robert’s connection to the Green household exerted significant influence on her life and accomplishments.
From this beginning emerges a life that exceeds all expectations for one born female and enslaved. Escher beautifully details Betsey’s life, with several themes repeatedly surfacing to offer readers a lens through which to witness this inspiring tale of the power of the human spirit.
Immediately in Escher’s text, one becomes quickly aware of Betsey’s love for learning and its critical role in her formation and ultimate vocation. Escher describes Betsey’s gaining literacy in the Green home, which is described as a vibrant educational environment given Rev. Green’s service as the President of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) and Princeton Theological Seminary. Escher depicts the Green home as a place where Betsey’s intellectual gifts were welcomed and cultivated and the university and seminary settings as places where she was exposed to biblical languages and took full advantage of numerous theological and philosophical texts.
These experiences were foundational to the development of Betsey’s intellectual acumen, as evident in the letters of support written by Green and Michael Osborn. Osborn is said to have tutored Betsey at Princeton Theological Seminary. Both men provided glowing recommendations for Betsey to serve as a missionary in September 1822.
This is a good place to note a recurring theme in Escher’s work. At many points throughout the text, Escher’s account does not adequately address the complex ways in which Betsey’s enslavement and race negatively impacted her life and, in particular, obstructed her opportunities for learning. While one might expect Green to express charitable depictions of his actions towards Betsey in his own accounts, Escher often reads the writings of Green and others so generously that they appear to ignore slavery’s institutional weight and burden.
As a result, few challenges to this enslaved woman’s road to literacy are fully explored. The role of the Green family and many other religious whites presented are written with affection and seemingly taken at face value. Escher presents Green as a surrogate father for Betsey but also shares the account of Green’s selling of three years of her time to his nephew, Nathaniel Todd, in Woodbury, NJ. To reconcile this contradiction between the fatherly presentation of Green and his continued participation in the commodification of Betsey, Escher suggests that this selling of her time is motivated by Green’s desire to further Betsey’s education with Todd. These moments rob Escher’s narrative of the rich complexity present in both the journey of Betsey and her interactions with those that Escher understandably presents as important parts of her life. This is a recurring concern of this richly written work.
Another theme that emerges in Escher’s work is the tremendous exposure, both domestically and internationally, Betsey experiences as a result of her travel. In addition to her time in Philadelphia and Princeton during her youth, she traveled with the Green family on a lengthy journey to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) on a whaler named the Thames in the fall of 1822 as a missionary. Her journey and time in the Sandwich Islands is filled with too many meaningful events to detail here, serving as just one of the many extraordinary experiences afforded to this woman of color. Additionally, having spent time in Canada, Betsey may well have been one of the most extensively traveled women of color of her time.
One more incredibly significant theme is that of Betsey’s commitment to the education of indigenous and black children throughout her life. This is the contribution for which she is most celebrated. Her time in Lahaina, Maui, and her role in establishing two schools for non-royal children, along with Betsey’s unique approach of honoring the local culture and language of the indigenous people, are noteworthy.
Is Betsey’s devout ministry simply the result of her personal commitment to the education of these children? Or does this reflect Betsey’s empathy for those whose caste status shared significant similarities to her place within the racial caste system of her native land? These are questions left uninterrogated by Escher.
Betsey’s success in educating children is the hallmark of her career. She served as a principal at the Infant School for Color Children in Philadelphia, spent a short time at the Ojibwa Mission School in Ontario, Canada, and was instrumental in the founding of a school for African American children in Princeton. Betsey’s contributions are celebrated in a stained-glass window in Princeton’s Witherspoon Presbyterian Church, donated by the Stockton Scholars in honor of the tremendous work of this great educator for African American children.
Escher presents a rich depiction of a woman whose life began trapped in the cruel clutches of captivity. Through perseverance, divine providence, and opportunity, Betsey has made an impact on the world that is truly worthy of celebration and of the attention that Escher and others have brought to her story. Escher’s lack of engagement with some of the truly challenging elements of Betsey’s life, however, leaves much of the narrative still untold. I hope that this will serve as an invitation to others to tell us the rest of the story.