Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more. [24] When he returned in November to gather the rest of the slaves, the plantation managers had their slaves flee and hide. He was valued at $900. But six years after he appeared in the census, and about three decades after the birth of his first child, he renewed his wedding vows with the blessing of a priest. June 1838 the University benefited from the sale of 272 slaves, some as young as 2 months old to finance the ailing institution. In 2017, Georgetown University held aday of remembranceduring which the president of the Jesuit order apologized to more than 100 descendants attending a contrition liturgy. When you register, youll get unlimited access to our website and a free subscription to our email newsletter for daily updates with a smart, Catholic take on faith and culture from. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. Father Mulledy promised his superiors that the slaves would continue to practice their religion. [65], On April 18, 2017, DeGioia, along with the provincial superior of the Maryland Province, and the president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, held a liturgy in which they formally apologized on behalf of their respective institutions for their participation in slavery. Check out some of the. . One building is now named in honor of a slave who was 65 years old when he was sold in 1838. Isaac Hawkins was the first enslaved person listed in the 1838 sale document. The ship manifest of the Katharine Jackson, available in full at the. [70], The Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen was created in 1792 to preserve the property of the. Mr. Cellini was on the line. Banks would finance land purchases using slaves as collateral. As a result, he had to sell his property in the 1840s and renegotiate the terms of his payment. [19] At the congregation, the senior Jesuits in Maryland voted six to four to proceed with a sale of the slaves,[20] and Dubuisson submitted to the Superior General a summary of the moral and financial arguments on either side of the debate. On that same day, the university rededicated two buildings previously named for former university presidents who were priests and supporters of the slave trade. Freedom Hall became Isaac Hawkins Hall, after the first slave listed on the articles of agreement for the 1838 sale. The enslaved were grandmothers and grandfathers, carpenters and blacksmiths, pregnant women and anxious fathers, children and infants, who were fearful, bewildered and despairing as they saw their families and communities ripped apart by the sale of 1838. However, the total number of slaves is only one way to measure the level of slavery in a country. More than half were younger than 20, and nearly a third were not yet 10 years old. He might have disappeared from view again for a time, save for something few could have counted on: his deep, abiding faith. To see the posts, click here. At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. Some of that money helped to pay off the debts of the struggling college. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. Books and Textbooks One of the greatest ways to advance your life choices and future. The name had been passed down from generation to generation in her family. Through the project, genealogists have discovered 8,425 descendants of enslaved people sold in 1838. Mr. Cellini, whose genealogists have already traced more than 200 of the slaves from Maryland to Louisiana, believes there may be thousands of living descendants. And they were sold, along with scores of others, to help secure the future of the premier Catholic institution of higher learning at the time, known today as Georgetown University. Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Recorded Thursday, September 29, 2016, at the Washington Ideas Forum. [56] An undergraduate student also brought this to public attention in several articles published by the school newspaper, The Hoya between 2014 and 2015, about the university's relationship with slavery and the slave sale. (Slaves were often donated by prosperous parishioners.) Today the Society of Jesus, who helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors, stands before you to say that we have greatly sinned, said Rev. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. Many institutions owned slaves and Georgetown University was no exception. [35] He ordered McSherry to inform Mulledy that he had been removed as provincial superior, and that if Mulledy refused to step down, he would be dismissed from the Society of Jesus. With time, Georgetown professors, students and alumni are taking a look at this portion and tracking the people sold to finance the institution. Michelle Miller reports. It is interesting that the date was June 19th as many years later, it was on what is now recognized as Juneteenth. The presidents of Harvard University and Georgetown University discuss their institutions historic ties to slavery in a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. ", What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross 2016, "Historical Timeline: Events Affecting the GU272 from the 1838 Sale to the Present", "Bill of Sale from the Heirs of Jesse Batey to Washington Barrow, January 18, 1853", "Bill of Sale for Land and People from Washington Barrow to William Patrick and Joseph B. Woolfolk, February 4, 1856", "Bill of Sale for Land and 138 People from William Patrick and Joseph Woolfolk to Emily Sparks, Widow of Austin Woolfolk, July 16, 1859", "Henry Johnson's Sales of Enslaved Persons, 18441851", Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation 2016, "University Requests Change in Use for Ryan Hall and Mulledy Hall", "Renovation of Former Jesuit Residence Beginning May 19", "Slavery's Remnants, Buried and Overlooked", "Georgetown University to rename two buildings that reflect school's ties to slavery", "Announcing the Working Group on Slavery, Memory & Reconciliation", "Concrete Expressions of Georgetown's Jesuit Heritage: A Photographic Sampler of Campus Buildings and the Jesuits for Whom They are Named From the University Archives", "Heeding Demands, University Renames Buildings", "Mulledy Name To Be Removed From BrooksMulledy Hall", "President's Response to Report of the Mulledy/Healy Legacy Committee", "Georgetown Apologizes, Renames Halls After Slaves", "Georgetown Apologizes for 1838 Sale of More Than 270 Enslaved, Dedicates Buildings", "Georgetown University Plans Steps to Atone for Slave Past", "For Georgetown, Jesuits and Slavery Descendants, Bid for Racial Healing Sours Over Reparations", "Georgetown Students Agree to Create Reparations Fund", "Catholic Order Pledges $100 Million to Atone for Slave Labor and Sales", "Saving Souls and Selling Them: Jesuit Slaveholding and the Georgetown Slavery Archive", "Foundation and First Administration of the Maryland Province, Part I: Background", "Catholic Slaveowners and the Development of Georgetown University's Slave Hiring System, 17921862", Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation to the President of Georgetown University, The Lost Jesuit Slaves of Maryland: Searching for 91 people left behind in 1838, What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross, Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, Video of Isaac Hawkins Hall dedication ceremony from C-SPAN, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1838_Jesuit_slave_sale&oldid=1141447737, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 03:24. In 1838, the Jesuit priests who ran the countrys top Catholic university needed money to keep it alive. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? It would not survive, Father Mulledy feared, without an influx of cash. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. [63][38], The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, of which Mulledy was the first president from 1843 to 1848, also began to reconsider the name of one of its buildings in 2015. This was a great cause of the wealth of the slaveowners who took advantage of land stolen from the original owners, the Native Americans who had lived here for centuries. [137] Thomas C. Hindman (1828-1868), American politician and Confederate general. Relationship Counseling - Marriage resources, Falling in Love Finding God Marriage and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology, The problem of hatredand how Christians are contributing to it, Jesuit sex abuse expert appointed to Vatican office for child protection, Sin, hell and scrupulosity: How to repent during Lent (and how not to). A Jesuit reports on the slaves' religious life in Louisiana, 1848, Chatham Plantation, Ascension Parish, Louisiana. A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Dr. Rothman said. Much more than a way to chat. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. Slavery was much more than the theft of labor; it was the deprivation of liberty for which this country professes so loudly. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. Inspiring Stories of Black History and Achievement, 272 Slaves Sold to Finance Georgetown University. (Courtesy of Ellender Library) In 1838, two priests who served as president of Georgetown University orchestrated the sale of 272 people to pay off debts at the school. American Ancestors announced the new GU272 Memory Project website on Wednesday (June 19), the anniversary of Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when some American slaves learned they had been freed. 51 slaves were to be sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then shipped to Louisiana. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. They were looked on not as humans but as collateral and sold to secure the future of this great Catholic institution that hold such a place of honor to this day. We shop for the best values for you. She was the citys first black woman television anchor. (RNS) A genealogical association has launched a new website detailing the family histories of slaves who were sold to keep Catholic-run Georgetown University from bankruptcy in the 1800s. American Ancestors announced the new GU272 Memory Project website on June 19, the anniversary of Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when some American slaves learned they had been freed. The Jesuits decided that the elderly would not be sold south and instead would be permitted to remain in Maryland. Leave a message for others who see this profile. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions. While the school did own a small number of slaves over its early decades,[13] its main relationship with slavery was the leasing of slaves to work on campus,[14] a practice that continued past the 1838 slave sale. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn) On Oct. 29, John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, released a university-wide letter announcing that Georgetown would commit to raising around. In 1996, the Jesuit Plantation Project was established by historians at Georgetown, which made available to the public via the internet digitized versions of much of the Maryland Jesuits' archives, including the articles of agreement for the 1838 sale. They found the last physical marker of Corneliuss journey at the Immaculate Heart of Mary cemetery, where Ms. Crumps father, grandmother and great-grandfather are also buried. The records describe runaways, harsh plantation conditions and the anguish voiced by some Jesuits over their participation in a system of forced servitude. But he was persuaded to reconsider by several prominent Jesuits, including Father Mulledy, then the influential president of Georgetown who had overseen its expansion, and Father McSherry, who was in charge of the Jesuits Maryland mission. But few were lucky enough to escape. [7] In 1830, the new Superior General, Jan Roothaan, returned Kenney to the United States, specifically to address the question of whether the Jesuits should divest themselves of their rural plantations altogether, which by this time had almost completely paid down their debt. [8] These consisted primarily of the plantations of White Marsh in Prince George's County, St. Inigoes and Newtown Manor in St. Mary's County, St. Thomas Manor in Charles County, and Bohemia Manor in Cecil County. They worried that new owners might not allow the slaves to practice their Catholic faith. [56][62] In 2016, The New York Times published an article that brought the history of the Jesuits' and university's relationship with slavery to national attention. In addition to the summary above, it is our intent to provide you with a more detailed look at the matter by providing videos and books that allow a deeper view. Against the conditions agreed upon, families were separated due to this sale. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. GU272 descendent Carolyn Smith gestures toward gravestones of descendants of enslaved people in Houma, La. It soon became clear that Roothaan's conditions had not been fully met. Some slaves suffered at the hands of a cruel overseer. [11] On some plantations, the majority of slaves did not work because they were too young or old. The 1970s saw an increase in public scholarship on the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership. [34] In the years after the sale, it also became clear that most of the slaves were not permitted to carry on their Catholic faith because they were living on plantations far removed from any Catholic church or priest. Following Batey's death, his West Oak plantation and the slaves living there were sold in January 1853 to Tennessee politician Washington Barrow and Barrow's son, John S. Barrow, a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The week also provided opportunities for members of the descendant community to connect with one another and with Jesuits through a private vigil on Monday night, a descendant-only dinner on Tuesday evening and tours of the Maryland plantation where their ancestors were enslaved. The Rev. So in June 1838, he negotiated a deal with Henry Johnson, a member of the House of Representatives, and Jesse Batey, a landowner in Louisiana, to sell Cornelius and the others. The internal slave trade in the United States, also known as the domestic slave trade, the Second Middle Passage and the interregional slave trade, was the term for the domestic trade of enslaved people within the United States that reallocated slaves across states during the Antebellum period.It was most significant after 1808, when the importation of slaves was prohibited. Slaves Transported on the Katherine Jackson of Georgetown, Arriving New Orleans 6 Dec 1838, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1838_Jesuit_slave_sale, https://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/9, https://gu272.americanancestors.org/family/all-families, https://gu272.americanancestors.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/GMP%20Ancestor%20Database%202019%2002%2008%20%281%29%20%281%29.xlsx, Send a private message to the Profile Manager, Ascension Parish, Louisiana, Slave Owners, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, Slave Owners, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, Public Comments: Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. If youre already a subscriber or donor, thank you! We also hope to work with you on additional opportunities for engaging with those who many not be able to attend in-person gatherings. In letters written to Jesuit superiors in Maryland, one priest who accidentally crossed paths with the slaves in Louisiana after the sale bemoaned the fact that the slaves couldnt practice Catholicism.. Central concepts and key points are illustrated through campus examples. Please visit ourmembership pageto learn how you can invest in our work by subscribing to the magazine or making a donation. Georgetown University was an active participant in the slave trade selling upwards of 272 slaves from their Maryland run plantation to the deep south in an effort to support the then struggling university in 1838 according to The New York Times. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. The next year, Pope Gregory XVI explicitly barred Catholics from engaging in this traffic in Blacks no matter what pretext or excuse.. Jesuit Father Hans Zollner will be a consultant for the Diocese of Romes office dedicated to safeguarding minors and vulnerable people. They also knew that life on plantations in the Deep South was notoriously brutal, and feared that families might end up being separated and resold. Another building has been renamed Anne Marie Becraft Hall in honor of a free Black woman who established a school in the town of Georgetown for Girls of color. Documents provide the factual framework, but people supply the human story.. [37], Before Roothaan's order reached Mulledy, Mulledy had already accepted the advice of McSherry and Eccleston in June 1839 to resign and go to Rome to defend himself before Roothaan. Three Jesuits traveled aboard The Ark and The Dove on Lord Baltimore's voyage to settle Maryland in 1634. [66] In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. CNN In 1838, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved people to pay off the university's debts. And she learned that Cornelius had worked the soil of a 2,800-acre estate that straddled the Bayou Maringouin. [22], In October 1836, Roothaan officially authorized the Maryland Jesuits to sell their slaves, so long as three conditions were satisfied: the slaves were to be permitted to practice their Catholic faith, their families were not to be separated, and the proceeds of the sale had to be used to support Jesuits in training,[23] rather than to pay down debts. Census of slaves to be sold in 1838 This is the original list of slaves from the Jesuit plantations compiled in preparation for the sale in 1838. [2] As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. That alumnus, Richard J. Cellini, the chief executive of a technology company and a practicing Catholic, was troubled that neither the Jesuits nor university officials had tried to trace the lives of the enslaved African-Americans or compensate their progeny. While they continued to support gradual emancipation, they believed that this option was becoming increasingly untenable, as the Maryland public's concern grew about the expanding number of free blacks. The college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations, university officials say. As a Georgetown employee, Jeremy Alexander watched as the university grappled with its haunted past: the sale of slaves in 1838 to help rescue it from financial ruin. As Black Americans as descendants of enslaved people we have always been told youll never know who you are. There was no need for a map. African-Americans are often a fleeting presence in the documents of the 1800s. [18], The Maryland Jesuits, having been elevated from a mission to the status of a province in 1833,[17] held their first general congregation in 1835, where they considered again what to do with their plantations. The Society of Jesus, whose members are known as Jesuits, established its first presence in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Thirteen Colonies alongside the first settlers of the British Province of Maryland, which had been founded as a Catholic colony and refuge. Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, a descendant of another of the slaves sold by the Jesuits, is the president of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane, Wash., which is helping to track the slaves and their families. While the plantations were initially worked by indentured servants, as the institution of indentured servitude began to fade away in Maryland, African slaves replaced indentured servants as the primary workers on the plantations. ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' History must be faced in order to heal and move forward! As part of Georgetown University's Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation initiative, students in Professor Adam Rothman's fall 2019 UNXD 272 class researched buildings and sites on Georgetown's campus to provide historical context for understanding their significance. The Jesuit leaders running the institution that would later become Georgetown University sold the 272 enslaved men, women and children in 1838 to settle mounting debts threatening the. All of this was new to Ms. Crump, except for the name Cornelius or Neely, as Cornelius was known. Leaders in policy, business, technology, science, history, arts and culture engaged with top journalists on the most consequential issues of our time. What can you do to make amends?. But he said he could not stop thinking about the slaves, whose names had been in Georgetowns archives for decades. Use our links to Amazon anytime you shop Amazon. Hundreds of Blacks were slaughtered and 10,000 left homeless in this largely unknown event. [29] The slaves Mulledy gathered were sent on the three-week voyage aboard the Katherine Jackson,[27] which departed Alexandria on November 13 and arrived in New Orleans on December 6. To pay that debt, the university sold 272 slaves the very people that helped build the school itself. After the sale, Cornelius vanishes from the public record until 1851 when his trail finally picks back up on a cotton plantation near Maringouin, La. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. [27] Johnson allowed these slaves to remain in Maryland because he intended to return and try to buy their spouses as well. It is also emblematic of the complex entanglement of American higher education and religious institutions with slavery. (The two men would swap positions by 1838.). [36], Soon after the sale, Roothaan decided that Mulledy should be removed as provincial superior. So Judy Riffel, one of the genealogists hired by Mr. Cellini, began following a chain of weddings and births, baptisms and burials. This resulted in families being split for economic reasons with no consideration of human relationships. [57], In September 2015, DeGioia convened a Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation to study the slave sale and recommend how to treat it in the present day. Interview: Whats it like to photograph Pope Francis? if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. She does not put much stock in what she describes as casual institutional apologies. But she would like to see a scholarship program that would bring the slaves descendants to Georgetown as students. [15] Alice Clifton (c. 1772-unknown), as an enslaved teenager, she was a defendant in an infanticide trial in 1787. Meet Paul Haring, the CNS photographer who covered the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Francis, numerous international papal trips and the daily action of Vatican life for over a decade. Today, these enslaved people are known collectively as the GU272 Ancestors. Genealogists have identified many of the original people who were sold, along with over 9000 of their descendants. There is no indication that he received any response. Revealed: The Slave Sold to Save Georgetown by Stacy M. Brown March 22, 2017 Frank Campbell was sold in 1838 to help save Georgetown. Examined and found correct, he wrote of Cornelius and the 129 other people he found on the ship. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. Shoes and clothing were made in the North and shipped to be used by the enslaved people. Meanwhile, Georgetowns working group has been weighing whether the university should apologize for profiting from slave labor, create a memorial to those enslaved and provide scholarships for their descendants, among other possibilities, said Dr. Rothman, the historian. Were sorry registration isn't working smoothly for you. The researchers have used archival records to follow their footsteps, from the Jesuit plantations in Maryland, to the docks of New Orleans, to three plantations west and south of Baton Rouge, La. Slaves worked on the Jesuit plantations in Maryland that helped to sustain the Jesuits' religious and educational mission. [7] As early as 1814, the trustees of the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen discussed manumitting all their slaves and abolishing slavery on the Jesuit plantations,[10] though in 1820, they decided against universal manumission. Now comes the task of making amends. [5] The first record of slaves working Jesuit plantations in Maryland dates to 1711, but it is likely that there were slave laborers on the plantations a generation before then. In April 2017, Georgetown renamed buildings that had honored university leaders responsible for selling those enslaved Africans to Louisiana plantations. The church records helped lead to a 69-year-old woman in Baton Rouge named Maxine Crump. [34] During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism. The institution came under fire last fall, with students demanding justice for the slaves in the 1838 sale. Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. [21], Meanwhile, in order to fund the province's operations,[22] McSherry, as the first provincial superior of the Maryland Province,[17] began selling small groups of slaves to planters in Louisiana in 1835, arguing that it was not possible to sell the slaves to local planters and that the buyers had assured him that they would not mistreat the slaves and would permit them to practice their Catholic faith. Georgetown and the College of the Holy Cross renamed buildings, and the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States pledged to raise $100 million for the descendants of slaves owned by the Jesuits. Cardinal McElroy on radical inclusion for L.G.B.T. And they are confronting a particularly wrenching question: What, if anything, is owed to the descendants of slaves who were sold to help ensure the colleges survival? A notation on the second page indicates that it was discovered by Fr. Jesuit priests in Maryland sold 272 slaves to Louisiana plantations in 1838 to fund Georgetown . Advertisement In Bayonne-Johnson's hands,. Moreover, men and women held in bondage were also part of the day-to-day operation of Georgetown College in its early decades. To see information on Juneteenth, click here. Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. We receive a small royalty without cost to you. Slaves were collateral and could be used to mortgage land and other goods. Georgetown University Sold Hundreds of SlavesDoes That Still Matter? Georgetown University in Washington, seen from across the Potomac River. We see that slavery was MUCH more than depriving people of their liberty and theft of their services, it was the cruel and long lasting emotional devastation of selling away loved ones, taking indecent liberties, cruel and inhumane treatment and so much more. Peter Havermans wrote of an elderly woman who fell to her knees, begging to know what she had done to deserve such a fate, according to Robert Emmett Curran, a retired Georgetown historian who described eyewitness accounts of the sale in his research. By the 1840s, word was trickling back to Washington that the slaves new owners had broken their promises. Families would not be separated. Participants in this discussion are: Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University. [24], Johnson was unable to pay according to the schedule of the agreement. The remainder of the slaves were accounted for in three subsequent bills of sale executed in November 1838, which specified that 64 would go to Batey's plantation named West Oak in Iberville Parish and 140 slaves would be sent to Johnson's two plantations, Ascension Plantation (later known as Chatham Plantation) in Ascension Parish and another in Maringouin (Iberville Parish).
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