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What Happened to Lucy's Son?

An archival mystery tour

Join archivist Helene van Rossum and local historian Davie-Lyn Evans in an archival mystery tour through family, church, and national archives and genealogical resources.

In 1824, a young Black woman named Lucy, freed from slavery but "covenant servant" of Colonel Peter Dumont Vroom in Hillsborough, gave birth to a son, Abraham Tromp. When he was six, she bound him as an indentured servant and apprentice to Colonel Vroom's son, the governor of New Jersey. At 21, after finishing his service, Abraham was to receive only a suit and a Bible. 

Being a free woman, why did Lucy sign the indenture? What happened to her son? Is he the "Abraham Van Tromp" who joined Princeton's Witherspoon Street Church in 1846? Could he have changed his suit for a sailor's rig and become a "Black Jack"? Is he the man buried at the Princeton cemetery in 1883? Could Paul Robeson's father have led the funeral?

Archivist Helene van Rossum and local historian Davie-Lyn Evans explore answers to these and other questions with an archival mystery tour through family, church, and national archives and genealogical resources.

Presenters:

Helene (Heleen) van Rossum is a Dutch-born freelance archivist, historical researcher,
and writer who has lived and worked in Princeton most of her life. She earned an MA in
history at the University of Amsterdam, and a post-graduate diploma in archival studies
in London, England. After moving with her family to Princeton in 1995, she worked as
an archivist at Mudd Manuscript Library, the Curtis Institute of Music at Philadelphia,
and at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives. In 2024 she
published a trivia book about Princeton University with Dan Linke, Acting Associate
University Librarian for Special Collections.

Davie-Lyn Jones-Evans is an elementary school teacher and local historian. She holds
a Bachelor of Arts in History and American Studies from Douglass College, Rutgers
University, and a Master of Arts in Elementary Education from Seton Hall University.
Evans’s "At Home with History" blog received the 2024 Somerset County Historic
Preservation and History Publication Award for its preservation of African American
history in Somerville, NJ. She serves on the Ubuntu Cultural Pavilion, Inc. Board and
the New Cemetery Board (Somerville, NJ).

Presented by the library's Public Humanities Initiative in partnership with Ubuntu Cultural Pavilion with support from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Public Humanities programs are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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