CNN In 1838, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved people to pay off the university's debts. Login to post. To this day the search continues. [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. [68], Georgetown University also extended to descendants of slaves that the Jesuits owned or whose labor benefitted the university the same preferential legacy status in university admission given to children of Georgetown alumni. Her ancestors, once amorphous and invisible, are finally taking shape in her mind. 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. 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. [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. Descendants are learning new links to their pasts as a result of the project. 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). Others, including two of Corneliuss uncles, ran away before they could be captured. A notation on the second page indicates that it was discovered by Fr. 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. 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 sale of 272 slaves in 1838 rescued the College from crushing debt. But thewebsiteincludes a spreadsheet of 314 individuals whom genealogists have identified as being part of the group sold by the Jesuit priests. Georgetown University in Washington, seen from across the Potomac River. The slaves were also identified as collateral in the event that Johnson, Batey, and their guarantors defaulted on their payments. 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. 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. Richard Cellini, the chief executive of a technology company and a Georgetown alumnus, hired eight genealogists to track down the slaves and their descendants. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. Isaac Hawkins was the first enslaved person listed in the 1838 sale document. 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. Georgetown Jesuits enslaved her ancestors. (Ms. Bayonne-Johnson discovered her connection through an earlier effort by the university to publish records online about the Jesuit plantations.). 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. [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. 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. Upon receipt of these 51, Johnson and Batey were to pay the first $25,000. 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. Some wrote emotional letters to Roothaan denouncing the morality of the sale. We have been here since the founding of this country, and we are a significant part of the American experience.. Most of the 314 enslaved people were sent to Louisiana, but about a third remained in Maryland or were sold to other locations, according to an article on the website. Behind her are sugar plantations and the sugar mill where her ancestors worked. At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. She is outraged that the churchs leaders sanctioned the buying and selling of slaves, and that Georgetown profited from the sale of her ancestors. [11] On some plantations, the majority of slaves did not work because they were too young or old. [67] The university also gave permanent names to the two buildings. In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over . Ms. Crump, a retired television news anchor, was driving to Maringouin, her hometown, in early February when her cellphone rang. It is interesting that the date was June 19th as many years later, it was on what is now recognized as Juneteenth. Anyone can read what you share. At the time, the Catholic Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, said the Rev. A photo of the slave cabins at Laurel Valley in Thibodaux is part of the GU272 Memory Project. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. Slaves were often threatened with having family members sold away, splitting parents from even infants because of minor infractions as determined by the slave owner. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. list of slaves sold by georgetown university. [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. He was allowed to continue paying well beyond the ten years initially allowed, and continued to do so until just before the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, during the Civil War. Jan Roothaan, who headed the Jesuits international organization from Rome and was initially reluctant to authorize the sale. In the uproar that followed, he was called to Rome and reassigned. 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. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. There is joy in that, she said, exhilaration even. So Judy Riffel, one of the genealogists hired by Mr. Cellini, began following a chain of weddings and births, baptisms and burials. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II An astonishing book. [34] During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism. 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. Families would not be separated. We also hope to work with you on additional opportunities for engaging with those who many not be able to attend in-person gatherings. 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. Today, the universitys leaders, students and alumni are grappling with how to confront that history. Now, for the first time, Ms. Crump understood its origins. It is better to prevent than to attempt to remedy. ALL OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ON THIS PAGE HAVE PROFILES. If youre already a subscriber or donor, thank you! It also features audio recordings in which descendants recall memories, from segregated education to family migration away from the South. 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. The U.S. Department of State defines modern slavery as "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled . To see the posts, click here. In 1836, the Jesuit Superior General, Jan Roothaan, authorized the provincial superior to carry out the sale on three conditions: the slaves must be permitted to practice their Catholic faith, their families must not be separated, and the proceeds of the sale must be used only to support Jesuits in training. Check out some of the. [52] In 2014, renovation began on Ryan and Mulledy Halls to convert them into a student residence. It was his Catholicism, born on the Jesuit plantations of his childhood, that would provide researchers with a road map to his descendants. 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. (Valuable Plantation and Negroes for Sale, read one newspaper advertisement in 1852.). Participants in this discussion are: Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University. 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. 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.. 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 name had been passed down from generation to generation in her family. Now students, professors and alumni want to know what happened to those men and women and what the university will do moving forward. And she would like to see Corneliuss name, and those of his parents and children, inscribed on a memorial on campus. We shop for the best values for you. Ms. Crump, 69, has been asking herself that question, too. In 2013, Georgetown began planning to renovate the adjacent Ryan, Mulledy, and Gervase Halls, which together served as the university's Jesuit residence until the opening of a new residence in 2003. 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. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. They were heading to the only Catholic cemetery in Maringouin. 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. What can you do to make amends?. Copyright 2023 America Press Inc. | All Rights Reserved. We have committed to finding ways that members of the Georgetown and Descendant communities can be engaged together in efforts that advance racial justice and enable every member of our Georgetown community to confront and engage with Georgetowns history with slavery.. Georgetown is not the only institution that has prospered on the backs of enslaved people. [58] In November of that year, following a student-led protest and sit-in,[59] the working group recommended that the university temporarily rename Mulledy Hall (which opened during Mulledy's presidency in 1833)[60] to Freedom Hall, and McSherry Hall (which opened in 1792 and housed a meditation center)[61] to Remembrance Hall. A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Dr. Rothman said. The Jesuits used the proceeds to benefit then-Georgetown College. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. On June 19, 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus agreed to sell 272 slaves to two Louisiana planters, Henry Johnson and Jesse Batey, for $115,000 (equivalent to approximately $2.96 million in 2021). The institution came under fire last fall, with students demanding justice for the slaves in the 1838 sale. (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 two men would swap positions by 1838.). The article details how the sold slaves were transported to three Louisiana plantations, where they faced brutal treatment. He demanded that Mulledy travel to Rome to answer the charges of disobeying orders and promoting scandal. From these estates, the Jesuits traveled the countryside on horseback, administering the sacraments and catechizing the Catholic laity. 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. Roughly two-thirds of the Jesuits former slaves including Cornelius and his family had been shipped to two plantations so distant from churches that they never see a Catholic priest, the Rev. GU272 descendent Carolyn Smith gestures toward gravestones of descendants of enslaved people in Houma, La. 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. [9] The main crops grown were tobacco and corn. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. In the list are links to affiliate partners. Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Recorded Thursday, September 29, 2016, at the Washington Ideas Forum. John DeGioia, President, Georgetown University. Much more than a way to chat. [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. She prides herself on being unflappable. You are here: blueberry crumble cake delicious magazine; hendersonville nc city council candidates 2021; list of slaves sold by georgetown university . These posts focus on the reality of Black life in America after the Civil War culminating in the landmark Brown v Board of Education that changed so many of the earlier practices. 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). We encourage you to share the site on social media. What has emerged from their research, and that of other scholars, is a glimpse of an insular world dominated by priests who required their slaves to attend Mass for the sake of their salvation, but also whipped and sold some of them. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. But priests at the Jesuit plantations recounted the panic and fear they witnessed when the slaves departed. Cardinal McElroy on radical inclusion for L.G.B.T. 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. 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. None of those conditions were met, university officials said. But he said he could not stop thinking about the slaves, whose names had been in Georgetowns archives for decades. [51] Other historians covered the subject in literature published between the 1980s and 2000s. In 2019, 66 percent of Georgetown students voted in a referendum to add a $27.20 student fee to be. The records describe runaways, harsh plantation conditions and the anguish voiced by some Jesuits over their participation in a system of forced servitude. Continue scrolling down for more amazing information, videos, books and value items. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. [30] In total, only 206 are known to have been transported to Louisiana. Key then transferred this property to John R. Thompson. [26] Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. 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. Please see also: Slaves Transported on the Katherine Jackson of Georgetown, Arriving New Orleans 6 Dec 1838, Source: "List of slaves on each estate to be sold," Box 40, Folder 10, Maryland Province Archives[2], Categories: Ascension Parish, Louisiana, Slave Owners | Ascension Parish, Louisiana, Slaves | Iberville Parish, Louisiana, Slave Owners | Iberville Parish, Louisiana, Slaves | Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia | Georgetown University Slaves | District of Columbia, Slave Owners | District of Columbia, Slaves | Maryland, Slaves | Maryland, Slave Owners, WIKITREE HOME | ABOUT | G2G FORUM | HELP | SEARCH. [35][34] Benedict Fenwick, the Bishop of Boston, privately lamented the fate of the slaves and considered the sale an extreme measure. this helps us promote a safe and accountable online community, and allows us to update you when other commenters reply to your posts. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. [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. [71] The university instead decided to raise $400,000 per year in voluntary donations for the benefit of descendants. 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 April 2017, Georgetown renamed buildings that had honored university leaders responsible for selling those enslaved Africans to Louisiana plantations. One building was renamed for Isaac Hawkins, first on the list of the 272 human beings sold in 1838. 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. Georgetown University Archives The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. Leaders in policy, business, technology, science, history, arts and culture engaged with top journalists on the most consequential issues of our time. Slavery was much more than the theft of labor; it was the deprivation of liberty for which this country professes so loudly. [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. And the money raised by the sale would not be used to pay off debt or for operating expenses. people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. We also posted a 5 part mini-series on the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres in the history of America. Some slaves suffered at the hands of a cruel overseer. [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. You can either click on the link in your confirmation email or simply re-enter your email address below to confirm it. The Rev. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. That building is now known as Freedom Hall. But the revelations about her lineage and the church she grew up in have unleashed a swirl of emotions. And the 1838 sale worth about $3.3 million in todays dollars was organized by two of Georgetowns early presidents, both Jesuit priests. This indispensable guide presents academic administrators and staff with advice on building an equity-minded campus culture, aligning strategic priorities and institutional missions to advance equity, understanding equity-minded data analysis, developing campus strategies for making excellence inclusive, and moving from a first-generation equity educator to an equity-minded practitioner. Some of that money helped to pay off the debts of the struggling college. [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. They worried that new owners might not allow the slaves to practice their Catholic faith. In 1870, he appeared in the census for the first time. Close to half of them remain alive. We ask our visitors to confirm their email to keep your account secure and make sure you're able to receive email from us. There is no indication that he received any response. 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. And she learned that Cornelius had worked the soil of a 2,800-acre estate that straddled the Bayou Maringouin. [43][44] In 1856, Washington Barrow sold the slaves he purchased from Batey to William Patrick and Joseph B. Woolfolk of Iberville Parish. [5], On June 19, 1838, Mulledy, Johnson, and Batey signed articles of agreement formalizing the sale. Hundreds of Blacks were slaughtered and 10,000 left homeless in this largely unknown event. To see information on Juneteenth, click here. [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. Thomas Lilly reported. Three Jesuits traveled aboard The Ark and The Dove on Lord Baltimore's voyage to settle Maryland in 1634. [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. 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. [18] The province was sharply divided, with the American-born Jesuits supporting a sale and the missionary European Jesuits opposing on the basis that it was immoral both to sell their patrimonial lands and to materially and morally harm the slaves by selling them into the Deep South, where they did not want to go. 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. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. 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. The site includes a searchable database with genealogies of descendants who have died. [3], Much of this land was put to use as plantations, the revenue from which financed the Jesuits' ministries. Slaves worked on the Jesuit plantations in Maryland that helped to sustain the Jesuits' religious and educational mission.
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