A photo of the slave cabins at Laurel Valley in Thibodaux is part of the GU272 Memory Project. Her great-uncle had the name, as did one of her cousins. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. [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. A Jesuit reports on the slaves' religious life in Louisiana, 1848, Chatham Plantation, Ascension Parish, Louisiana. In addition to becoming physically dilapidated, all but one of the plantations had fallen into debt. 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 [30] In total, only 206 are known to have been transported to Louisiana. She runs a nonprofit, Dialogue on Race Louisiana, that offers educational programs on institutional racism and ways to combat it. [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. 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. 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. We also posted a 5 part mini-series on the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres in the history of America. Limit 20 per day. CNN In 1838, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved people to pay off the university's debts. But the 1838 slave sale organized by the Jesuits, who founded and ran Georgetown, stands out for its sheer size, historians say. 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. 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. [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. At the time, the Catholic Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, said the Rev. [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. Georgetown University Sold Hundreds of SlavesDoes That Still Matter? 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). 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. Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. He was about 48 then, a father, a husband, a farm laborer and, finally, a free man. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II An astonishing book. 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. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. Now that we have this data, my hope is that we can use it to open doors and make connections. [11] On some plantations, the majority of slaves did not work because they were too young or old. Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime . 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. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. But he said he could not stop thinking about the slaves, whose names had been in Georgetowns archives for decades. This has made people reluctant to see the past and this has had a long term harm by remaining hidden and allowed to fester. [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. Enslaved, marginalized and forced into illiteracy by laws that prohibited them from learning to read and write, many seem like ghosts who pass through this world without leaving a trace. (The two men would swap positions by 1838.). 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. Copyright 2023 America Press Inc. | All Rights Reserved. [136] Eufrosina Hinard (born 1777), a free black woman in New Orleans, she owned slaves and leased them to others. In the list are links to affiliate partners. (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. Georgetown was a prominent Jesuit priests. 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). Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. Many of them baptized Catholic, they were bought by planters to work. [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. In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over . What can you do to make amends?. (Ms. Bayonne-Johnson discovered her connection through an earlier effort by the university to publish records online about the Jesuit plantations.). In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Catholic Church were among the largest slaveholding institutions in America. Examined and found correct, he wrote of Cornelius and the 129 other people he found on the ship. An inspector scrutinized the cargo on Dec. 6, 1838. [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. 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. 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. 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. He addressed his concerns to Father Mulledy, who three years earlier had returned to his post as president of Georgetown. The New York Times would like to hear from people who have done research into their genealogical history. 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. 51 slaves were to be sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then shipped to Louisiana. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. [71] The university instead decided to raise $400,000 per year in voluntary donations for the benefit of descendants. In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over a 5-year period stretching from 1838 to 1843. [37] As censure for the scandal,[39] Roothaan ordered Mulledy to remain in Europe,[35] and Mulledy lived in exile in Nice until 1843. Are You A Liturgist With A Passion to Form Young Adults? He might have disappeared from view again for a time, save for something few could have counted on: his deep, abiding faith. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human beings. On Juneteenth, the debate comes to Congress. New England ship builders made ships to bring people to this country. The slaves were also identified as collateral in the event that Johnson, Batey, and their guarantors defaulted on their payments. Inspiring Stories of Black History and Achievement, 272 Slaves Sold to Finance Georgetown University. So Judy Riffel, one of the genealogists hired by Mr. Cellini, began following a chain of weddings and births, baptisms and burials. Father Mulledy promised his superiors that the slaves would continue to practice their religion. Maryland Province Archives at Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, A passage from the Rev. [137] Thomas C. Hindman (1828-1868), American politician and Confederate general. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. [72][70] Georgetown also made a $1million donation to the foundation and a $400,000 donation to create a charitable fund to pay for healthcare and education in Maringouin, Louisiana. Use our links to Amazon anytime you shop Amazon. 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. We have been here since the founding of this country, and we are a significant part of the American experience.. March 24, 2017. Participants in this discussion are: Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University. It was his Catholicism, born on the Jesuit plantations of his childhood, that would provide researchers with a road map to his descendants. In the uproar that followed, he was called to Rome and reassigned. (Valuable Plantation and Negroes for Sale, read one newspaper advertisement in 1852.). A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Dr. Rothman said. From these estates, the Jesuits traveled the countryside on horseback, administering the sacraments and catechizing the Catholic laity. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. To pay that debt, the university sold 272 slaves the very people that helped build the school itself. Some wrote emotional letters to Roothaan denouncing the morality of the sale. 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? [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. 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 would be better to suffer financial disaster than suffer the loss of our souls with the sale of the slaves, wrote the Rev. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. 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. 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. Eventually, Roothaan removed Thomas Mulledy as provincial superior for disobeying orders and promoting scandal, exiling him to Nice for several years. Other Jesuits voiced their anger to the Archbishop of Baltimore, Samuel Eccleston, who conveyed this to Roothaan. As a frequent reader of our website, you know how important Americas voice is in the conversation about the church and the world. Although modern slavery is not always easy to recognize, it continues to exist in nearly every country. Families would not be separated. Thomas F. Mulledy, president of Georgetown from 1829 to 1838, and again from 1845 to 1848, arranged the sale. [43][44] In 1856, Washington Barrow sold the slaves he purchased from Batey to William Patrick and Joseph B. Woolfolk of Iberville Parish. 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. [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. 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. The Rev. 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). The date when the last slaves were freed in Texas 18 months after they had officially freed at the end of the Civil War. [4] Many of these slaves were gifted to the Jesuits, while others were purchased. [36], Soon after the sale, Roothaan decided that Mulledy should be removed as provincial superior. It also notes slaves who had run away, and those who had been "married off." The plantation would be sold again and again and again, records show, but Corneliuss family remained intact. [4][a] Several of the Jesuits' slaves unsuccessfully attempted to sue for their freedom in the courts in the 1790s. But priests at the Jesuit plantations recounted the panic and fear they witnessed when the slaves departed. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. [24] When he returned in November to gather the rest of the slaves, the plantation managers had their slaves flee and hide. We receive a small royalty without cost to you. The institution came under fire last fall, with students demanding justice for the slaves in the 1838 sale. ", 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. A Reflection for Friday of the First Week of Lent, by Jill Rice. Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. 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. As Black Americans as descendants of enslaved people we have always been told youll never know who you are. The presidents of Harvard University and Georgetown University discuss their institutions historic ties to slavery in a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. African-Americans are often a fleeting presence in the documents of the 1800s. [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. The article details how the sold slaves were transported to three Louisiana plantations, where they faced brutal treatment. 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. One-hundred-seventy-eight years ago, Georgetown University was free to everyone who was able to attend; it was also massively in debt. This sale was overseen by Provincial Superior William McSherry and Friar Thomas Mulledy. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. ALL OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ON THIS PAGE HAVE PROFILES. Ms. Crump, a retired television news anchor, was driving to Maringouin, her hometown, in early February when her cellphone rang. 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. [70], In 2019, undergraduate students at Georgetown voted in a non-binding referendum to impose a symbolic reparations fee of $27.20 per student. . A notation on the second page indicates that it was discovered by Fr. 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. Joseph Zwinge (identified as "J.Z.") ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' We encourage you to share the site on social media. In fact, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, University of Virginia did as well. Colleges and universities have placed greater emphasis on education equity in recent years. They also established schools on their lands. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. To comment or make suggestions on future posts, use Contact Us. list of slaves sold by georgetown university. We ask our visitors to confirm their email to keep your account secure and make sure you're able to receive email from us. 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. Cornelius had originally been shipped to a plantation so far from a church that he had married in a civil ceremony. For the eighth year, the Forum was hosted by The Atlantic in partnership with the Aspen Institute. Its hard to know what could possibly reconcile a history like this, he said. It is better to prevent than to attempt to remedy. Now, for the first time, Ms. Crump understood its origins. By the end of December, one of Mr. Cellinis genealogists felt confident that she had found a strong test case: the family of the boy, Cornelius Hawkins. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. 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. As a result, he had to sell his property in the 1840s and renegotiate the terms of his payment. 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. people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. [45] Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. GU272 descendent Carolyn Smith gestures toward gravestones of descendants of enslaved people in Houma, La. 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.. 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. Against the conditions agreed upon, families were separated due to this sale. Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842-1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. Some children were sold without their parents, records show, and slaves were dragged off by force to the ship, the Rev. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. 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. 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.
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