Students want Princeton Theological Seminary officials to rename chapel due to namesake’s ties to slavery

The Association of Black Seminarians and other student groups at Princeton Theological Seminary want Samuel Miller’s name removed from the school’s chapel due to his use of slaves. They have also asked seminary leaders to establish a renaming process for all of the buildings on the campus that are named after people with ties to slavery.

On Tuesday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m., students will hold a demonstration that is open to the public, calling on the seminary’s board of trustees to remove Miller’s name from the chapel at the board’s next meeting on Jan. 25.

Students have vowed that they will stop worshiping in the chapel, the center of communal spiritual life at the seminary, if the name is not removed by the start of the spring semester Jan. 31.

Miller, the second professor at the seminary,  was a native of Delaware who joined the seminary in 1813 after a distinguished pastorate in New York City. According to The Princeton Seminary Slavery Audit Report, he employed slave labor during his lifetime, including when he lived in Princeton. He held slaves for a period of years under the provision in New Jersey law that allowed the gradual abolition of slavery.

In addition to the physical removal of Miller’s name from the chapel building, students are calling on the president of the seminary to make an announcement about the removal and the establishment of a process for renaming the chapel.

“Miller’s efforts against abolition and enforcing colonization of freed black slaves does not
reflect the theological imagination and pioneering spirit of this institution,” reads a statement from the Association of Black Seminarians about the planned demonstration. “If the seminary is truly a covenant community, aimed to be antiracist, just, sacred and uplifting, with our chapel at the spiritual epicenter then the name on the seminary chapel must reflect these principles.”

Students also have started a petition calling for the removal of Miller’s name from the chapel. More than 300 people have signed the petition. Several student groups endorse the name change, including the Princeton Theological Seminary Student Government Association Executive Board, Seminarians for Peace and Justice, the Lutheran Group, the Asian Association of Princeton Theological Seminary, EnConjunto, The Women*s Center, The Korean Student Association, the Antiracist Coalition, and the Gender and Sexuality Association for Seminarians. Students said many alumni, faculty members, and community members also support the name change.