Lolita Buckner Inniss, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., is a professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where she is a Robert G. Storey Distinguished Faculty Fellow. Her research addresses historic, geographic, metaphoric, and visual norms of law, especially in the context of race, gender, and comparative constitutionalism.Lolita Buckner Inniss, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., is a professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where she is a Robert G. Storey Distinguished Faculty Fellow. Her research addresses historic, geographic, metaphoric, and visual norms of law, especially in the context of race, gender, and comparative constitutionalism.

Shane White, author of Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire:
The Princeton Fugitive Slave is fascinating historical detective work. Lolita Buckner Inniss has recovered the journey of James Collins Johnson from his youth as a slave on the Maryland Eastern Shore to his life as a free man in Princeton. Deeply researched, the book overturns any lingering idea that Princeton was a haven from the broader society. Johnson had to cope with the casual racism of students, occasional eruptions of racial violence in town and the ubiquitous use of the N-word by even the supposedly educated. This book contributes to our understanding of slavery’s legacy today.

James H. Johnston, author of From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family:
A rare story. James Collins Johnson was a legend among Princeton students, and Inniss provides enriching detail to explain what slave life was like, the difficulties of escape, the practical operation of the fugitive slave law, and why an owner would bother to seek a slave’s return four years after he left. Johnson’s saga is one example of the hurdles faced by fugitive slaves and of race relations in the 19th century in slave-holding Maryland and the free state of New Jersey.