By Anne Levin
Thursday, November 6 marks a milestone of sorts for Morven Museum and Garden. The day not only opens the first exhibit delving into the overlooked connections between families straddling the Mason-Dixon Line; it is also the official debut of a new gallery on the historic house’s second floor.
“Northern Family, Southern Ties” is the result of three years of research on why New Jersey aligned more closely with southern states than its northern neighbors on practices regarding slavery. The focus is on the marriage between a son of the Stockton family, prominent in Princeton; and the daughter of the wealthy Potter family of Charleston, N.C.
“The NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) grant that we lost back in April was supposed to be for this exhibit,” said Elizabeth Allan, curator of the show, referring to the cutbacks in federal funding ordered by the Trump administration. “We had a lot of generous funders who stepped up. We were really lucky.”
“The exhibit complicates the more traditional understanding of the ‘North’ and “South,’ by following two families before, during, and after the Civil War,” reads a release from Morven. It aims to show how the Stocktons’ influence changed the landscape of New Jersey, while examining the lives of those whose freedom was on the line as the debate over slavery unfolded on the national political stage.”
The show includes names recently discovered in manifests, such as Georgiana Gould, who was moved by the Potter family between their Charleston, Savannah, and Princeton homes from the time she was 3 years old until she was 25.
A newly discovered painting was “one of the most exciting things to come out of this show,” said Allan. “We stumbled upon it this past summer. This incredible painting that belonged to the Potter family — we’d been looking for images of it for a long time.”
The painting is remarkable because it shows the Potter family next to six of their slaves, getting ready to row them in a boat down the Savannah River. “While the enslaved men remained unidentified, James Potter at the center of the picture was the brother-in-law of Commodore Stockton, and spent his summers in Princeton at what is now known as Palmer House on the corner of Bayard Lane and Stockton Street,” reads the release.
Allan and fellow researchers Jesse Gordon Simons and Sharece Blakney had come across a black and white photograph depicting slaves in the collection of the Georgia Historical Society.
“But they didn’t know where the painting was,” said Allan. “We literally wrote the text for this image, and then found that the painting had come up for auction on September 24. We just about had a heart attack. We got in touch with the successful bidder, who was happy to lend it to us.”
The painting is on view for the first time. Also in the new gallery are works by artist Thomas Sully, a few objects, and an interactive exhibit that allows viewers to follow the interstate movement of enslaved people. “You can see how many times someone is being moved by looking at manifests,” said Allan. “You can learn about the experiences of these enslaved people and what they were forced to live with.”
The exhibit shows that marriages between wealthy families from the North and South were not unusual in the 19th century. These alliances connected political and economic interests, including the preservation of slavery.
“Naval Lieutenant Commandant Robert Field Stockton and Harriet Maria Potter came to own Morven in New Jersey and a plantation in Georgia,” reads the release. “Harriet’s parents followed the couple to Princeton, bringing with them staggering wealth made from their ever-expanding rice plantations powered by hundreds of enslaved people on the Savannah River. The effects of this influx of capital are still visible in the Princeton landscape today: from Trinity Church to Prospect House, and even the Delaware & Raritan Canal.”
The second-floor space housing the new gallery is in the west wing of the building. It was used previously as a board room, and for part of the annual Festival of Trees (which opens November 19 and runs through January 11).
“One of our hopes for this gallery is that we’ll change it every few years,” said Allan. “We want to have new stories on view as we come up with them.”
“Northern Family, Southern Ties” runs through 2028. Related programming will be announced. Visit morven.org for details.