The Scarlet and Black Project aims to shed light on the legacy of slavery and dispossession at Rutgers University.
This Digital Archive serves as a companion to our three books. Learn more about the project and our team.
Check out our latest news.
Explore our digital exhibits to learn about African American history at Rutgers, from slavery to black student activism in the twentieth century. Exhibit topics include campus buildings named after slaveholders, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in New Brunswick, and the New Brunswick NAACP's anti-lynching campaign in the 1920s.
Our digital collections also contain a wide range of primary sources about local black history, such as runaway slave ads, birth records of enslaved children in Middlesex County, manumission records, and the records of the Mount Zion AME Church of New Brunswick digitized as part of the Alice Jennings Archibald History Library collection.
Use the Advanced Search function to search our collections or simply type a keyword into the search box at the top of this page.
Featured Item
Bill of sale for Flora, Phillis, and Ann, sold to John Neilson
Bleecker, Anthony L.
1787-01-31

Anthony L. Bleecker sells to John Neilson an enslaved woman named Flora and her two female children Phillis and Ann for £120.
Recently Added Items
Sketch of the first site of the Mount Zion AME Church of New Brunswick
Marsh, Herbert
1972

Sketch of the first site of the Mount Zion AME Church of New Brunswick, which was said to resemble a little red schoolhouse. The sketch is by artist…
Alice Jennings Archibald Oral History Interview
Rutgers Oral History Archives
1997-03-14

Alice Jennings Archibald's oral history interview conducted on March 14, 1997, by G. Kurt Piehler and Eve Snyder in New Brunswick, NJ, for the Rutgers…
Featured Collection
Alice Jennings Archibald History Library Records (Mount Zion AME Church of New Brunswick)

This collection consists of photographs, manuscripts, church histories, and financial records from the Alice Jennings Archibald History Library at the…
Featured Exhibit
Rutgers African American Alumni Gallery: The Forerunner Generation

In 1892, James Dickson Carr became the first black man to graduate from Rutgers University. Over the course of the...