Please visit ourmembership pageto learn how you can invest in our work by subscribing to the magazine or making a donation. Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education From Equity Talk to Equity Walk offers practical guidance on the design and application of campus change strategies for achieving equitable outcomes. Richard Cellini, the chief executive of a technology company and a Georgetown alumnus, hired eight genealogists to track down the slaves and their descendants. [5], On June 19, 1838, Mulledy, Johnson, and Batey signed articles of agreement formalizing the sale. (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. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime. Upon receipt of these 51, Johnson and Batey were to pay the first $25,000. But few were lucky enough to escape. Copyright 2023 America Press Inc. | All Rights Reserved. [2] As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. It would not survive, Father Mulledy feared, without an influx of cash. There is joy in that, she said, exhilaration even. The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. Some wrote emotional letters to Roothaan denouncing the morality of the sale. This is the original list of slaves from the Jesuit plantations compiled in preparation for the sale in 1838. We shop for the best values for you. [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. 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 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. But when Ms. Riffel, the genealogist, told her where she thought he was buried, Ms. Crump knew exactly where to go. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. Examined and found correct, he wrote of Cornelius and the 129 other people he found on the ship. [53], With work complete, in August 2015, university president John DeGioia sent an open letter to the university announcing the opening of the new student residence, which also related Mulledy's role in the 1838 slave sale after stepping down as president of the university. In fact, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, University of Virginia did as well. (Slaves were often donated by prosperous parishioners.) What Does It Owe Their Descendants? 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. Thomas F. Mulledy, president of Georgetown from 1829 to 1838, and again from 1845 to 1848, arranged the sale. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? [24], Johnson was unable to pay according to the schedule of the agreement. 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. 2023 A Month of Tribute to 31 Women We Should All Know, Rosewood A Typical Race Riot in America. In the list are links to affiliate partners. He might have disappeared from view again for a time, save for something few could have counted on: his deep, abiding faith. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. [35][34] Benedict Fenwick, the Bishop of Boston, privately lamented the fate of the slaves and considered the sale an extreme measure. This has made people reluctant to see the past and this has had a long term harm by remaining hidden and allowed to fester. History has attempted to take the sting out of it which is impossible. [51] Other historians covered the subject in literature published between the 1980s and 2000s. Thomas R. Murphy, a historian at Seattle University who has written a book about the Jesuits and slavery. 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? Share. [33], Almost immediately, the sale, which was one of the largest slave sales in the history of the United States,[28] became a scandal among American Catholics. Limit 20 per day. 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. [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 sale prompted immediate outcry from fellow Jesuits. Other slaves were sold locally in Maryland so that they would not be separated from their spouses who were either free or owned by non-Jesuits, in compliance with Roothaan's order. 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. There are no surviving images of Cornelius, no letters or journals that offer a look into his last hours on a Jesuit plantation in Maryland. At the time, the Catholic Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, said the Rev. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. [8] In reality, by the early 19th century, the Jesuit plantations were in such a state of mismanagement that the Jesuit Superior General in Rome, Tadeusz Brzozowski, sent Irish Jesuit Peter Kenney to review the operations of the Maryland Mission as a canonical visitor in 1820. The sale of 272 slaves in 1838 rescued the College from crushing debt. This admissions preference has been described by historian Craig Steven Wilder as the most significant measure recently taken by a university to account for its historical relationship with slavery. [48] In 1977, the Maryland Province named Georgetown's Lauinger Library as the custodian of its historic archives, which were made available to the public through the Georgetown University Library, Saint Louis University Library, and Maryland State Library. The website is part of a collaboration between Boston-based American Ancestors, also called the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and the Georgetown Memory Project, which was founded by Georgetown alumnus Richard Cellini. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. 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,[27] Ascension Plantation (later known as Chatham Plantation) in Ascension Parish and another in Maringouin in Iberville Parish. Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more. 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. By the 1840s, word was trickling back to Washington that the slaves new owners had broken their promises. Interview: Whats it like to photograph Pope Francis? A fantastic research tool with video camera, navigation programs and so much more. James Van de Velde, a Jesuit who visited Louisiana, wrote in a letter in 1848. 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.. The hope was to eventually identify the slaves descendants. This coincided with a protest by a group of students against keeping Mulledy's and McSherry's names on the buildings the day before. And the money raised by the sale would not be used to pay off debt or for operating expenses. Ashby's account book at Newtown.For a spreadsheet with all the data transcribed, seeGSA5. To pay that debt, the university sold 272 slaves the very people that helped build the school itself. 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: To see the posts, click here. 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. In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over a 5-year period stretching from 1838 to 1843. The 1970s saw an increase in public scholarship on the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership. [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. 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. Were sorry registration isn't working smoothly for you. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. Drawing from campus-based research projects sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, this invaluable resource provides real-world steps that reinforce primary elements for examining equity in student achievement, while challenging educators to specifically focus on racial equity as a critical lens for institutional and systemic change. 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 By the 1830s, however, their physical and religious conditions had improved considerably. 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. 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. One building was renamed for Isaac Hawkins, first on the list of the 272 human beings sold in 1838. Tweet. (Ms. Bayonne-Johnson discovered her connection through an earlier effort by the university to publish records online about the Jesuit plantations.). They worried that new owners might not allow the slaves to practice their Catholic faith. 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. It is necessary to keep in mind that these people were free in their native country and enslaved once they got to America. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. As part of an ongoing consideration to this atrocity Georgetown is seeking to rectify their prior actions and, in a speech delivered to descendants of the identified descendants delivered this message: 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. [40] The remaining $17,000, equivalent to approximately $440,000 in 2021,[25] was used to offset part of Georgetown College's $30,000 of debt that had accrued during the construction of buildings during Mulledy's prior presidency of the college. The article details how the sold slaves were transported to three Louisiana plantations, where they faced brutal treatment. From these estates, the Jesuits traveled the countryside on horseback, administering the sacraments and catechizing the Catholic laity. We encourage you to visit our website, call us at (202)-687-8330, or email us at descendants@georgetown.edu if you are interested in learning more or sharing your ideas and reflections. [9] The main crops grown were tobacco and corn. Georgetown Jesuits enslaved her ancestors. [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. (Valuable Plantation and Negroes for Sale, read one newspaper advertisement in 1852.). James Van de Veldes. But on this day, in the fall of 1838, no one was spared: not the 2-month-old baby and her mother, not the field hands, not the shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins, who was about 13 years old when he was forced onboard. [41] The Jesuits never received the total $115,000 that was owed under the agreement. [72] In 2021, the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States pledged to raise $100million for a newly created Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, which would aim to ultimately raise $1billion, with the purpose of working for the benefit of descendants of all slaves owned by the Jesuits. After the Jesuits vacated the buildings, Ryan and Mulledy Halls lay vacant, while Gervase Hall was put to other use. For Black History Month 2021, we focused on Black Medical Achievements, Inventors and Scientists.To see those posts, click here. ALL OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ON THIS PAGE HAVE PROFILES. [70], The Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen was created in 1792 to preserve the property of the. Soon, the two men and their teams were working on parallel tracks. Mr. Cellini is an unlikely racial crusader. 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. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. [46] Due to financial difficulties, Johnson sold half his property, including some of the slaves he had purchased in 1838, to Philip Barton Key in 1844. March 24, 2017. [48] It is one of the most well-documented slave sales of its era. Consider the following list: Top 10 Countries with the Highest Prevalence of Modern Slavery (by slaves per 1000 residents) - Global Slavery Index 2018: North Korea - 104.6 (10.46%) Eritrea - 93 (9.3%) Burundi - 40 (4.0%) Central African Republic . [50], The 1838 slave sale returned to the public's awareness in the mid-2010s. We ask readers to log in so that we can recognize you as a registered user and give you unrestricted access to our website. These are real people with real names and real descendants.. [37] Roothaan was particularly concerned because it had become clear that, contrary to his order, families had been separated by the slaves' new owners. Dr. Rothman, the Georgetown historian, heard about Mr. Cellinis efforts and let him know that he and several of his students were also tracing the slaves. It is also emblematic of the complex entanglement of American higher education and religious institutions with slavery. We encourage you to share the site on social media. [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. The U.S. Department of State defines modern slavery as "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled . 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. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human beings. 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. Login to post. Continue scrolling down for more amazing information, videos, books and value items. 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. She prides herself on being unflappable. 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. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human. 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. It also features audio recordings in which descendants recall memories, from segregated education to family migration away from the South. [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. [42], Before the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, many slaves sold by the Jesuits changed ownership several times. Start Free Trial Now Our membership program offers special benefits for just $99 per year: *Unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows, *FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, *Unlimited, ad-free streaming of over a million songs and more Prime benefits, Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime Start Free Trial Now. Inspiring Stories of Black History and Achievement, 272 Slaves Sold to Finance Georgetown University. A problem can is not solved without first recognizing it, discussing it and taking steps to rectify the long term damage that continues to this day. [28] Most of the slaves who fled returned to their plantations, and Mulledy made a third visit later that month, where he gathered some of the remaining slaves for transport. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. [15], While Roothaan decided in 1831, based on the advice of the Maryland Mission superior, Francis Dzierozynski, that the Jesuits should maintain and improve their plantations rather than sell them, Kenney and his advisors (Thomas Mulledy, William McSherry, and Stephen Dubuisson) wrote to Roothaan in 1832 about the growing public opposition to slavery in the United States, and strongly urged Roothaan to allow the Jesuits to gradually free their slaves. Georgetown is not the only institution that has prospered on the backs of enslaved people. Now shes working for justice. Cardinal McElroy responds to his critics on sexual sin, the Eucharist, and LGBT and divorced/remarried Catholics, Worried you retired too early? 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. More than a dozen universities including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and the University of Virginia have publicly recognized their ties to slavery and the slave trade. 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. [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. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions. Although the working group was established in August, it was student demonstrations at Georgetown in the fall that helped to galvanize alumni and gave new urgency to the administrations efforts. [39], While Roothaan ordered that the proceeds of the sale be used to provide for the training of Jesuits, the initial $25,000 was not used for that purpose. A white man, he admitted that he had never spent much time thinking about slavery or African-American history. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. 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. Father Mulledy promised his superiors that the slaves would continue to practice their religion. [28], Anticipating that some of the Jesuit plantation managers who opposed the sale would encourage their slaves to flee, Mulledy, along with Johnson and a sheriff, arrived at each of the plantations unannounced to gather the first 51 slaves for transport. Shoes and clothing were made in the North and shipped to be used by the enslaved people. They were heading to the only Catholic cemetery in Maringouin. Against the conditions agreed upon, families were separated due to this sale. Anne Marie Becraft Hall, formerly known as McSherry Hall and renamed Remembrance Hall two years ago, is named for a free woman of color who established a school in the town of Georgetown for black girls. [69] Several groups of descendants have been created, which have lobbied Georgetown University and the Society of Jesus for reparations, and groups have disagreed with the form that their desired reparations should take. Alfred Francis Russell (1817-1884), 10th President of Liberia. The Rev. [17], Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. 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. She found out about the Jesuits and Georgetown and the sea voyage to Louisiana. The plantation would be sold again and again and again, records show, but Corneliuss family remained intact. [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. This was only a portion of the slaves bought and sold by the Maryland Jesuits over time.[1]. Required fields are marked *. We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. To see information on Juneteenth, click here. Although modern slavery is not always easy to recognize, it continues to exist in nearly every country. She listened, stunned, as he told her about her great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Hawkins, who had labored on a plantation just a few miles from where she grew up. WASHINGTON The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nations capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. 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.. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over . people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. But thewebsiteincludes a spreadsheet of 314 individuals whom genealogists have identified as being part of the group sold by the Jesuit priests. But priests at the Jesuit plantations recounted the panic and fear they witnessed when the slaves departed. But this was no ordinary slave sale. The worn gravestone had toppled, but the wording was plain: Neely Hawkins Died April 16, 1902.. [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. He was about 48 then, a father, a husband, a farm laborer and, finally, a free man. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. She is outraged that the churchs leaders sanctioned the buying and selling of slaves, and that Georgetown profited from the sale of her ancestors.
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