I was the Clarke Family Slave and witnessed the Battle of Princeton. The battle that took place on the farms of my owners was something that we did not at all expect. My seven owners were all related and were Quakers; people who were pacifists and did not want to be involved in the war on either side. They were farmers who worked hard each day to produce food for their families and neighbors. We knew the British had troops stationed in Princeton on the morning of January 3, 1777, but had seen most of them march south the day before toward Trenton, where they had fought against General Washington’s troops. We had no idea how that battle had gone but, as always, put our efforts into doing the best we could with our farms that had suffered from pillage by the British troops at Princeton for over three weeks. We were missing animals and food supplies put up for the winter.

At the house of two of my owners, siblings Thomas and Sarah Clarke, the morning farm chores were underway when all of a sudden men began marching towards Princeton in front of our farmhouse on an old, little-used road that led to the east side of Princeton. They were disheveled men belonging to General Washington’s army, not the red coat British or blue coat Hessians, and it seemed that there were several thousand of them. As we watched, a group of several hundred men broke off and headed across the neighboring farm of William Clarke towards the Post Road [also called the King’s Highway]. Unknown to us, at that moment most of the British troops remaining in Princeton were marching on that road towards Trenton to join General Cornwallis there.

British soldiers on the road saw the American troops and sent some men to attack them. Very quickly, a battle took place on William’s and our farms, badly scaring us and causing some damage to our house. After the firing ceased, Washington’s troops carried some severely wounded and bleeding men into our house, and I helped Mistress Sarah Clarke along with other Quakers and army doctors take care of them for many days after the battle.