STORIES WITHIN STORIES: Connie Escher looks forward to the publication later this month of her biography of freed slave, educator, and 19th century Princeton luminary Betsey Stockton. Escher, who taught history in the Princeton Public Schools for 26 years, will lead a book launch event for “She Calls Herself Betsey Stockton: The Illustrated Odyssey of a Princeton Slave” on March 30 at the Princeton Public Library.

By Donald Gilpin

Connie Escher’s She Calls Herself Betsey Stockton: The Illustrated Odyssey of a Princeton Slave, to be published later this month and officially launched at Princeton Public Library (PPL) on March 30, has been a long time in the making.

The publication by Wipf and Stock Publishers, a division of Cascade Publishers in Eugene, Ore., marks the culmination of almost 40 years that Escher has spent seeking out evidence of the life of Betsey Stockton, the 19th century freed slave who is now famous as a groundbreaking educator, missionary, and integral figure in the history of Princeton.

“I think this book will be part of the national conversation,” said Escher, who taught history for 26 years in the Princeton Public Schools. “This is part of American history. It may be African American History Month, but this is a big American story about global literacy.”

Princeton University American History Professor Sean Wilentz, in a comment on the book jacket, described She Calls Herself Betsey Stockton as “a jewel of a book about an extraordinary American woman.” He continued, “From her fascinating opening chapter musing on photographs to her spirited conclusion, Escher has not just evoked a life, she has mediated on its larger meanings with grace and style.”

Escher’s journey with Betsey Stockton began in 1984 when Escher was director of the children’s museum at the Historical Society of Princeton (HSP). She was preparing an exhibit on “Four Stars of Princeton” — Annis Boudinot Stockton, Paul Robeson, Albert Einstein, and Betsey Stockton.

“Betsey Stockton found me,” said Escher. “The daguerreotype portrait which fell out of a file folder at Bainbridge House [the former Nassau Street home of the HSP] was so engaging, I knew I had to find evidence about this woman’s life. There was not very much information. Betsey Stockton was the person who was least well known in the children’s exhibit. Because of that exhibit I started to do much more research, and after the exhibit and people’s reaction to it I started to dig in.”

During vacations, summers, and any spare time she could find, Escher continued her quest. She relied on some help from Wanda Gunning in pointing out sources and what she calls “the big three libraries in Princeton” — the PPL, the Princeton Theological Seminary’s Speer Library, and Princeton University’s Firestone Library, which had just purchased the secret diaries of Ashbel Green, Princeton University president (1812-22) and Betsey Stockton’s surrogate father and owner until he freed her in 1817.

“I went directly to Firestone rare books and manuscripts and read all of the 1,200 or 1,300 pages of his secret diary in which he describes the education of this young slave in his household,” said Escher. “It’s all very exciting, and that primary source really unlocked for me enormous ways of finding out more about her early life. How did she become such a journalist on a whale ship? How did she become so proficient a teacher?”

Escher went on, “It meant a lot of digging, very persistent digging. Every school vacation from my own teaching job was spent researching, and I found a huge amount of material about all of her intricate relationships as she went through her odyssey around the globe by 1826 before returning to Princeton.”

In the 1991 edition of Princeton History: The Journal of the Historical Society of Princeton, Escher published a 30-page scholarly article about Betsey Stockton on which her current book is based. 

“That seminal article gave rise to even more questions,” said Escher. “Surface history really bothers me. I decided I was not going to do surface history. I was going to do in-depth history. That’s what good historians do. They dig in and really examine all the evidence.”

Escher described how her research led her into stories within stories as she investigated the life of Betsey Stockton as a missionary on a ship to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), as a teacher in Maui in the first school for non-royals, then as a teacher in Philadelphia and on a journey on the barge canal to the Ojibwa mission school in Canada before returning to teach in the Session House of the Presbyterian Church (now Kopp’s Cycle Shop) in Princeton. Stockton lived in two different houses in Princeton, one on Quarry Street and another on a lot facing Witherspoon Street.

“Stories within stories, stories you don’t expect, that the past gives you when you do this kind of mental archaeology,” said Escher. “I definitely feel a connection to her — her perseverance, courage, and faith — all those qualities influenced me tremendously.”

After a series of rejections from a variety of publishing houses and a fear that “it was never going to happen. This is a great book but it is never going to be published,” Escher’s book was accepted for publication by Wipf and Stock in early 2020.

“Little did I know, just as COVID started to unfold, what I was going to be going through in the next two years. That’s how long it has taken to write and submit the manuscript chapter by chapter,” she noted.

Finally, after writing, revising, editing, and responding to 432 author queries from her editor, Escher completed her manuscript on Christmas Eve 2021. 

“I found that, as I was writing these chapters, writing is very lonely,” she said. “It’s very scary. You wonder if you’re barking up the wrong tree. Maybe this isn’t as important as you think it is. All these doubts go through your mind. But I knew that this subject, Betsey Stockton, was worth it. This is definitely a story that’s worth being told. People really want to know about this. It now has tremendous topicality.”

She continued, “It’s about Princeton. It’s about several institutions in Princeton, which just recently in the past two years have made overtures about the importance of Betsey Stockton’s life. This is about the history of our town, and it is not a story that is easily understood. It’s an in-depth understanding of what this town was like. It’s also an incredibly exciting story. It’s going to be fun to read.”

“Princeton has the honor of claiming the life of a woman of valor and determination, Elizabeth ‘Betsey’ Stockton, who was born into slavery, served as a missionary, and became the first teacher of colored children and adults in Princeton,” wrote Princeton historian Shirley A Satterfield, as quoted on Escher’s book jacket. “She was a pioneer for justice. Constance Escher captures the essence of a woman of color whose journey elevated the lives of Princeton’s historical community through freedom, education, and faith.”

After a February 9 speakers luncheon presentation for the Nassau Club and her PPL book launch on March 30, Escher will be heading up to Mitchell’s Book Corner in Nantucket for a book signing promotional event during spring Daffodil Week.

“I’ve always had this image of myself sitting in front of Mitchell’s Book Corner on the main street of Nantucket, signing away,” she said.