The Rev. John Witherspoon was many things: the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, the leading Presbyterian of the Revolutionary era, a Scottish immigrant, president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), an active politician and a slaveholder.
Witherspoon was born in Scotland in 1723. He attended the University of Edinburgh and then served two parishes as a Church of Scotland minister. He was 45 years old, a husband and father, when two Americans — Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton — persuaded him to emigrate to America in 1768 to head the College of New Jersey.
By most accounts, Witherspoon was an excellent choice for the College. He built a reputation as a dynamic preacher, an engaged teacher, and a colonial leader — not just in Presbyterian, religious and educational circles but increasingly in politics as well.
In May 1776, two months before he began serving in the Second Continental Congress, Witherspoon preached a sermon titled “The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men.” This sermon became one of the most well-known and influential sermons of the Revolution. Witherspoon made a strong case that God sided with the patriots because their cause was just.
Like many Founding Fathers, Witherspoon was an enslaver. It is not clear when he acquired the two enslaved people listed in his estate at the time of his death, and little is known about them. Their names are lost to history, at least for now, and Witherspoon never wrote about them in any of his surviving correspondence. Witherspoon did not believe, as some did, that enslavement was a benevolent practice supported by the Bible. He thought slavery would disappear in the United States within a generation. But he never called for abolition. His view of slavery prevailed in the newly organized Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. — just as it did in the national government.
McKenna Britton, Communications, Presbyterian Historical Society, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Let us join in prayer for:
Andy Keeney, Information Security Officer, Information Systems, The Presbyterian Foundation
Stephen Keizer, Vice President Ministry Relations, Development Office, The Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Gracious and loving God, guide us as we strive to see and honor the full scope of past experiences. Open our minds and hearts to recognize the complexity of history and to feel compassion for human beings who lived in the past. We pray for your guidance today and into a future that often seems disconnected from Christ’s call. Help us to find the way. Amen.
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