The case of the Trenton Six attracted international attention in its time (1948–1952) and was once known as the “northern Scottsboro Boys case.” Yet, there is no memory of it. The shame of racism evident in the case has been nearly erased from the public record. Now, historian Cathy D. Knepper takes us back to the courtroom to make us aware of this shocking chapter in American history. Jersey Justice: The Story of the Trenton Six begins in 1948 when William Horner, an elderly junk dealer, was murdered in his downtown Trenton shop. Over a two-week period, six local African American men were arrested and charged with collectively killing Horner. Violating every rule in the book, the Trenton police held the six men in incommunicado detention, without warrants, and threatened them until they confessed. At the end of the trial the all-white jury sentenced the six men to die in the electric chair. That might have been the end of the story were it not for the tireless efforts of Bessie Mitchell, the sister of one of the accused men. Undaunted by the refusal of the NAACP and the ACLU to help appeal the conviction of the Trenton Six, Mitchell enlisted the aid of the Civil Rights Congress, ultimately taking the case as far as the New Jersey Supreme Court. Along the way, the Trenton Six garnered the attention and involvement of many prominent activists, politicians, and artists, including Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Pete Seeger, Arthur Miller, and Albert Einstein. Jersey Justice brings to light a shameful moment in our nation’s history, but it also tells the story of a personal battle for social justice that changed America.

In 1946, in the hardscrabble industrial city of Trenton, New Jersey, a woman kills her army veteran husband in a domestic brawl—and then assumes his identity. As Abe Kunstler, he secures a factory job, buys a car, and successfully woos a young woman with whom he makes a home. But for Abe, this is not enough: to complete his transformation, he needs a son. Fast-forward to 1971, and the certainties of midcentury triumphalism are a distant, bitter memory, Trenton’s heyday as a factory town is long past, and the family life Abe has so carefully constructed is crumbling under the intolerable pressures of his long ruse. Written in brilliantly stylized prose, Trenton Makes is the indelibly told story of a woman determined to carve out her share of the American Dream.

A survey of pottery of the Trenton Potteries Company of Trenton, New Jersey, (1892-1950). Over 290 color photographs display candlesticks, centerpieces, jardinieres, lamps, vases, wall pockets, and more. Current market values are included in the captions.

The story of Trenton begins in 1678, when 20 Quakers left Yorkshire, England to travel to America. They wintered in the fort at Burlington, New Jersey, and, in the spring of 1679, set sail for the lands they had purchased at the head of the navigable waters of the De La Warr River. Approaching rocky outcroppings in a sharp bend of the river, they stopped and began to build the village that would become the capital city of New Jersey. Trenton traces the city from these beginnings to more recent times, and just about everything in between, concentrating on the era of photography: from 1850 to 1960. The authors have masterfully compiled this volume, which blends images of the places and people that make Trenton so unique, with the stories of the important, timely events that helped to shape the history of Trenton.

Trenton is a small shoreline community on the banks of the Detroit River. Once populated with hardwood forests and the home of the Potawatomi Indians, Trenton later became known for its shipbuilding companies. Founded by Abram Truax in 1816 and platted in 1834, the town's name was originally Truaxton, was later changed to Truago, and since 1847 has been known as Trenton--a type of limestone mined from a local quarry. At one time, the city was touted as a center of diversified business and manufacturing in the Midwest.

Trenton, like the state of New Jersey, is often maligned these days, but there was a time when Trenton was the fiftieth largest city in the United States and boasted worldwide leaders in the iron and steel, rubber, and pottery industries. Like many cities of its comparative size and prowess that came of age in the Industrial Revolution, Trenton diminished in the aftermath of World War II and has become, for many, one of the "lost cities"--a place of lessened population, abandoned houses, and shuttered factories. Featuring a series of meditative explorations on the essence of the American post-industrial city through the prism of Trenton, this book explores the city's history, architecture, parks, factories, and neighborhoods through text and image, highlighting the importance of such post-industrial cities.