list of slaves sold by georgetown university

The Jesuits ultimately received payment many years late and never received the full $115,000. [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. Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime . In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over . [26] Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. It is also emblematic of the complex entanglement of American higher education and religious institutions with slavery. She still wants to know more about Corneliuss beginnings, and about his life as a free man. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. Eventually, Roothaan removed Thomas Mulledy as provincial superior for disobeying orders and promoting scandal, exiling him to Nice for several years. Anyone can read what you share. We encourage you to use these links as we receive a small royalty paid by the partner allowing you to help us without cost to you. Having descendant voices present alongside historical documents is an essential part of the GU272 narrative, said Claire Vail, the projects director for American Ancestors, in an announcement about the website. Inspiring Stories of Black History and Achievement, 272 Slaves Sold to Finance Georgetown University. [29] Some of the initial 272 slaves who were not delivered to Johnson were replaced with substitutes. The number of slaves transported to Louisiana (206) and the number left in Maryland (91) add up to 297, not 272, because some of the 272 slaves initially identified to be sold were substituted with replacements. 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. It would be better to suffer financial disaster than suffer the loss of our souls with the sale of the slaves, wrote the Rev. 51 slaves were to be sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then shipped to Louisiana. The college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations, university officials say. Last edited on 25 February 2023, at 03:24, Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, abolition of slavery in the United States, Slavery at American colleges and universities, "Where were the Jesuit plantations in Maryland? [4][a] Several of the Jesuits' slaves unsuccessfully attempted to sue for their freedom in the courts in the 1790s. (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 second is now named for a free African-American woman who founded a school for Catholic black girls in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Since 2015, Georgetown has been working to address its historical relationship to slavery and will continue to do so, a Georgetown spokesman said in a statement to Religion News Service on Friday. None of those conditions were met, university officials said. He was valued at $900. Close to half of them remain alive. In 1844, Henry Johnson sold a share of Chatham and would eventually sell the remainder of his land and enslaved people to John R. Thompson in 1851. . [27], The articles of agreement listed each of the slaves being sold by name. One building is now named in honor of a slave who was 65 years old when he was sold in 1838. Banks would finance land purchases using slaves as collateral. this helps us promote a safe and accountable online community, and allows us to update you when other commenters reply to your posts. Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more. There is joy in that, she said, exhilaration even. When the Society of Jesus was suppressed worldwide by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, ownership of the plantations was transferred from the Jesuits' Maryland Mission to the newly established Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen. It has been stated that value of slaves in America was more valuable than all the industrial and transportation capital of the United States in the first half of the 19th century. Now, with racial protests roiling college campuses, an unusual collection of Georgetown professors, students, alumni and genealogists is trying to find out what happened to those 272 men, women and children. They worried that new owners might not allow the slaves to practice their Catholic faith. Its hard to know what could possibly reconcile a history like this, he said. The children with Mr.. Are You A Liturgist With A Passion to Form Young Adults? 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. But priests at the Jesuit plantations recounted the panic and fear they witnessed when the slaves departed. [50] Curran also published Georgetown University's official, bicentennial history in 1993, in which he wrote about the university's and Jesuits' relationship with slavery. His owner, Mr. Batey, had died, and Cornelius appeared on the plantations inventory, which included 27 mules and horses, 32 hogs, two ox carts and scores of other slaves. 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. 2023 A Month of Tribute to 31 Women We Should All Know, Rosewood A Typical Race Riot in America. Ms. Crump, a retired television news anchor, was driving to Maringouin, her hometown, in early February when her cellphone rang. [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. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry. This message was delivered to more than 100 descendants of the original enslaved people who had been sol to finance the institution. [34] Many Maryland Jesuits were outraged by the sale, which they considered to be immoral, and many of them wrote graphic, emotional accounts of the sale to Roothaan. Check out some of the. [45] Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk. The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' The two feared that because the public would not accept additional manumitted blacks, the Jesuits would be forced to sell their slaves en masse. Password reset instructions will be sent to your registered email address. 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. They were looking to buy slaves in the Upper South more cheaply than they could in the Deep South, and agreed to Mulledy's asking price of approximately $400 per person. They were heading to the only Catholic cemetery in Maringouin. A photograph of Frank Campbell, one of 272 slaves sold to keep Georgetown University afloat, was found in a scrapbook at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. It also notes slaves who had run away, and those who had been "married off." In exchange, they would receive 272 slaves from the four Jesuit plantations in southern Maryland,[5][24] constituting nearly all of the slaves owned by the Maryland Jesuits. In addition to becoming physically dilapidated, all but one of the plantations had fallen into debt. The university itself owes its existence to this history, said Adam Rothman, a historian at Georgetown and a member of a university working group that is studying ways for the institution to acknowledge and try to make amends for its tangled roots in slavery. On November 14, 2015, DeGioia announced that he and the university's board of directors accepted the working group's recommendation, and would rename the buildings accordingly. At the time, the Catholic Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, said the Rev. Now, for the first time, Ms. Crump understood its origins. The two women drove on the narrow roads that line the green, rippling sugar cane fields in Iberville Parish. In 1870, he appeared in the census for the first time. Share with your friends! We also posted a 5 part mini-series on the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres in the history of America. But thewebsiteincludes a spreadsheet of 314 individuals whom genealogists have identified as being part of the group sold by the Jesuit priests. The Rev. Our membership program offers special benefits to college students including: * Unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping (with no minimum order size), * Exclusive deals and promotions for college students, Georgetown University confronts its history with slavery. [27] The agreement provided that 51 slaves would be sent to the port of Alexandria, Virginia in order to be shipped to Louisiana. [5], On June 19, 1838, Mulledy, Johnson, and Batey signed articles of agreement formalizing the sale. Logging in will also give you access to commenting features on our website. Her ancestors, once amorphous and invisible, are finally taking shape in her mind. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. [66] In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. Father Van de Velde begged Jesuit leaders to send money for the construction of a church that would provide for the salvation of those poor people, who are now utterly neglected.. Georgetown was a prominent Jesuit priests. It will challenge and change your understanding of what we were as Americans and of what we are. Chicago Tribune In this groundbreaking historical expos, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history an Age of Neo slavery that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. [24], Johnson was unable to pay according to the schedule of the agreement. Georgetown is not the only institution that has prospered on the backs of enslaved people. The notation betrayed no hint of the turmoil on board. But the popes order, which did not explicitly address slave ownership or private sales like the one organized by the Jesuits, offered scant comfort to Cornelius and the other slaves. It soon became clear that Roothaan's conditions had not been fully met. [10], Due to these extensive landholdings, the Propaganda Fide in Rome had come to view the American Jesuits negatively, believing they lived lavishly like manorial lords. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. On June 19, 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus agreed to sell 272 slaves to two southern Louisiana sugar planters, former governor Henry Johnson and Jesse Batey, for $115,000, equivalent to $2.79 million in 2020, in order to rescue Georgetown University from bankruptcy. (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. A photo of the slave cabins at Laurel Valley in Thibodaux is part of the GU272 Memory Project. ALL OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ON THIS PAGE HAVE PROFILES. Articles in the Woodstock Letters, an internal Jesuit publication that later became accessible to the public, routinely addressed both subjects during the course of its existence from 1872 to 1969. 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. Acknowledging the changing realities and increasing demands placed on contemporary postsecondary education, this book meets educators where they are and offers an effective design framework for what it means to move beyond equity being a buzzword in higher education. More than half were younger than 20, and nearly a third were not yet 10 years old. Many of them baptized Catholic, they were bought by planters to work. He was not yet five feet tall when he sailed onboard the Katharine Jackson, one of several vessels that carried the slaves to the port of New Orleans. The hope was to eventually identify the slaves descendants. [17], Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. Georgetown Slavery Archive Date 1838 Contributor Adam Rothman Relation GSA63 Format PDF Language English Type Text Identifier GSA5 Text Item Type Metadata Original Format Spreadsheet Files Collection Sale of Maryland Jesuit's enslaved community to Louisiana in 1838 Tags Families, Plantations, Slaves Citation At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. She later joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence, recognized as the oldest active Roman Catholic sisterhood in the Americas established by women of African descent. Today, the universitys leaders, students and alumni are grappling with how to confront that history. [9] The main crops grown were tobacco and corn. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. Amazing! Jan Roothaan, who headed the Jesuits international organization from Rome and was initially reluctant to authorize the sale. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html. 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. That man, Thomas Mulledy, then the president of Georgetown University, had sold 272 slaves to pay off a massive debt strangling the university. Descendants are learning new links to their pasts as a result of the project. [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. (Ms. Bayonne-Johnson discovered her connection through an earlier effort by the university to publish records online about the Jesuit plantations.). Mr. Cellini was on the line. So Judy Riffel, one of the genealogists hired by Mr. Cellini, began following a chain of weddings and births, baptisms and burials. But the revelations about her lineage and the church she grew up in have unleashed a swirl of emotions. A Reader on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation A microcosm of the history of American slavery in a collection of the most important primary and secondary readings on slavery at Georgetown University and among the Maryland Jesuits Georgetown Universitys early history, closely tied to that of the Society of Jesus in Maryland, is a microcosm of the history of American slavery: the entrenchment of chattel slavery in the tobacco economy of the Chesapeake in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; the contradictions of liberty and slavery at the founding of the United States; the rise of the domestic slave trade to the cotton and sugar kingdoms of the Deep South in the nineteenth century; the political conflict over slavery and its overthrow amid civil war; and slaverys persistent legacies of racism and inequality. Hundreds of Blacks were slaughtered and 10,000 left homeless in this largely unknown event. Several substitutions were made to the initial list of those to be sold, and 91 of those initially listed remained in Maryland. people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. Moreover, men and women held in bondage were also part of the day-to-day operation of Georgetown College in its early decades. They also established schools on their lands. This has made people reluctant to see the past and this has had a long term harm by remaining hidden and allowed to fester. A Reflection for Friday of the First Week of Lent, by Jill Rice. They recognize that despite their principals, they recognized the theft of labor, the destruction of families and the long term devastation that this inflicted on an entire race of people. Central concepts and key points are illustrated through campus examples. She prides herself on being unflappable. Father Mulledy took most of the down payment he received from the sale about $500,000 in todays dollars and used it to help pay off the debts that Georgetown had incurred under his leadership. in Fr. Keynote || Radcliffe Institute WELCOME Lizabeth Cohen, Dean, Radcliffe Institute, and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University OPENING REMARKS (12:07) Drew Gilpin Faust, President and Lincoln Professor of History, Harvard University KEYNOTE (15:51) Ta-Nehisi Coates, Journalist; National Correspondent, the Atlantic: Author, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015) and The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood (Spiegel & Grau, 2008) Conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Drew Gilpin Faust (34:37). [50], In 1981, historian Robert Emmett Curran presented at academic conferences a comprehensive research into the Maryland Jesuits' participation in slavery, and published this research in 1983. [7], By 1824, the Jesuit plantations totaled more than 12,000 acres (4,900 hectares) in the State of Maryland, and 1,700 acres (690 hectares) in eastern Pennsylvania. Despite coverage of the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership and the 1838 sale in academic literature, news of these facts came as a surprise to the public in 2015, prompting a study of Georgetown University's and Jesuits' historical relationship with slavery. The worn gravestone had toppled, but the wording was plain: Neely Hawkins Died April 16, 1902.. Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. Interview: Whats it like to photograph Pope Francis? [38] While McSherry initially persuaded Roothaan to forgo removing Mulledy,[37] in August 1839, Roothaan resolved that Mulledy must be removed to quell the ongoing scandal. Although modern slavery is not always easy to recognize, it continues to exist in nearly every country. A few priests expressed qualms about the morality of human trafficking to Jesuit authorities, although most were concerned with the threat a heavily Protestant South would undoubtedly present to the slaves Catholic faith, it reads. (The two men would swap positions by 1838.). [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. The name had been passed down from generation to generation in her family. Georgetown and the Society of Jesus Maryland Province have issued an apology for their role in this action to more than 100 descendants who had been traced at the time of the apology. An alumnus, following the protest from afar, wondered if more needed to be done. Georgetown Reflects on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Georgetown is engaged in a long-term and ongoing process to more deeply understand and respond to the university's role in the injustice of slavery and the legacies of enslavement and segregation in our nation. [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. 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. [47], While the 1838 slave sale gave rise to scandal at the time, the event eventually faded out of the public awareness. It lists the slaves by name according to plantation where they lived, identifies family groups, and records which ship (1, 2, or 3) they were shipped in. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. The condition of slaves on the plantations varied over time, as did the condition of the Jesuits living with them. If youre already a subscriber or donor, thank you! Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. -- Georgetown University has announced that descendants of 272 slaves, from whose sale the school profited in 1838, will receive "an advantage in the admissions process" as part of a larger . [24], Mulledy quickly made arrangements to carry out the sale. [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. [16] Mulledy in particular felt that the plantations were a drain on the Maryland Jesuits; he urged selling the plantations as well as the slaves, believing the Jesuits were only able to support either their estates or their schools in growing urban areas: Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. and St. John's College in Frederick, Maryland. The sale prompted immediate outcry from fellow Jesuits. He listened . We also hope to work with you on additional opportunities for engaging with those who many not be able to attend in-person gatherings. [3], Much of this land was put to use as plantations, the revenue from which financed the Jesuits' ministries. 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. There is no indication that he received any response. [54] Despite the decades of scholarship on the subject, this revelation came as a surprise to many Georgetown University members,[48][55] and some criticized the retention of Mulledy's name on the building. 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. Other industries made loads of money indirectly. Since youre a frequent reader of our website, we want to be able to share even more great, As a frequent reader of our website, you know how important, Georgetown students voted to pay for reparations. It is interesting that the date was June 19th as many years later, it was on what is now recognized as Juneteenth. Georgetown Jesuits enslaved her ancestors. This sale was the culmination of a contentious and long-running debate among the Maryland Jesuits over whether to keep, sell, or free their slaves, and whether to focus on their rural estates or on their growing urban missions, including their schools. The first payment on the remaining $90,000 would become due after five years. Some of that money helped to pay off the debts of the struggling college. [12], One of the Maryland Jesuits' institutions, Georgetown College (later known as Georgetown University), also rented slaves. Jesuit Father Hans Zollner will be a consultant for the Diocese of Romes office dedicated to safeguarding minors and vulnerable people. list of slaves sold by georgetown university. You can also manage your account details and your print subscription after logging in. Ashby's account book at Newtown.For a spreadsheet with all the data transcribed, seeGSA5. To pay that debt, the Jesuits who ran the school, under the auspices of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, sold 272 slaves -- the very people that helped build the school itself.. For Black History Month 2021, we focused on Black Medical Achievements, Inventors and Scientists.To see those posts, click here. Maryland Province Archives at Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, A passage from the Rev. [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. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev.



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