author
Anna Bustill Smith
1862–1945
An early Black genealogist, suffragist, and social historian, she used family memory and local history to preserve stories that might otherwise have been lost. Her best-known work looks closely at the lives of Black residents of Princeton, New Jersey, in the 1800s.
1 Audiobook
Reminiscences of Colored People of Princeton, N. J.: 1800-1900
by Anna Bustill Smith
About the author
Born in 1862 into Philadelphia's prominent Bustill family, she grew up in a family with deep roots in African American history. Reliable sources describe her as a member of the Bustill family and a cousin of Paul Robeson, and they connect her family line to Cyrus Bustill, a formerly enslaved man who became a community leader in Pennsylvania.
She is remembered as a suffragist and as the first known African American genealogist in the United States. Her writing focused on preserving family and community history, especially the histories of Black people whose lives were often left out of mainstream records.
Her best-known book, Reminiscences of Colored People of Princeton, N.J., 1800-1900, was published in 1913. Though brief, it remains valuable as an early record of Princeton's Black community and as part of her wider effort to document African American lives with care and respect.