The “liberty trees” in front, according to campus lore, had been planted a few months earlier to celebrate the repeal of the hated Stamp Act. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Ms. Taylor’s play, “James Johnson: Princeton and the Constitution,” uses beat-boxing and overlapping intergenerational voices to tell Johnson’s irony-rich story. Ultimately, a local white woman purchased his freedom for today’s equivalent of well over $10,000 — money that Johnson had to pay back. “When I saw the statue and learned that Witherspoon owned slaves, I thought, ‘Here we go,’” he said.

Source: New York Times November 06, 2017 15:04 UTC