people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. 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: In the uproar that followed, he was called to Rome and reassigned. In 1838, the Jesuit priests who ran the countrys top Catholic university needed money to keep it alive. [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. [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. Amazing! An alumnus, following the protest from afar, wondered if more needed to be done. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. 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. But when Ms. Riffel, the genealogist, told her where she thought he was buried, Ms. Crump knew exactly where to go. New England ship builders made ships to bring people to this country. They were heading to the only Catholic cemetery in Maringouin. The plantation would be sold again and again and again, records show, but Corneliuss family remained intact. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Census of slaves to be sold in 1838 This is the original list of slaves from the Jesuit plantations compiled in preparation for the sale in 1838. What can you do to make amends?. He listened . Joseph Zwinge (identified as "J.Z.") We encourage you to share the site on social media. Unknown because that portion of history is so like anything that reflects on the horrors of slavery preempted from our history. Michelle Miller reports. [45] Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. It was his Catholicism, born on the Jesuit plantations of his childhood, that would provide researchers with a road map to his descendants. Ms. Crump, a retired television news anchor, was driving to Maringouin, her hometown, in early February when her cellphone rang. [37] Roothaan was particularly concerned because it had become clear that, contrary to his order, families had been separated by the slaves' new owners. 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. You can also manage your account details and your print subscription after logging in. [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. A photo of the slave cabins at Laurel Valley in Thibodaux is part of the GU272 Memory Project. The two women drove on the narrow roads that line the green, rippling sugar cane fields in Iberville Parish. If youre already a subscriber or donor, thank you! Georgetown University was an active participant in the slave trade selling upwards of 272 slaves from their Maryland run plantation to the deep south in an effort to support the then struggling university in 1838 according to The New York Times. The presidents of Harvard University and Georgetown University discuss their institutions historic ties to slavery in a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. 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. 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.. After the Jesuits vacated the buildings, Ryan and Mulledy Halls lay vacant, while Gervase Hall was put to other use. The sale however is the largest one acknowledged to date. [24] He located two Louisiana planters who were willing to purchase the slaves: Henry Johnson, a former United States Senator and governor of Louisiana, and Jesse Batey. As part of Georgetown University's Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation initiative, students in Professor Adam Rothman's fall 2019 UNXD 272 class researched buildings and sites on Georgetown's campus to provide historical context for understanding their significance. [15] Alice Clifton (c. 1772-unknown), as an enslaved teenager, she was a defendant in an infanticide trial in 1787. A Reflection for Friday of the First Week of Lent, by Jill Rice. 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. 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. The records describe runaways, harsh plantation conditions and the anguish voiced by some Jesuits over their participation in a system of forced servitude. [36], Soon after the sale, Roothaan decided that Mulledy should be removed as provincial superior. Upon receipt of these 51, Johnson and Batey were to pay the first $25,000. 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. [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. The university created the liturgy in partnership with members of the descendant community, the Archdiocese of Washington and the Society of Jesus in the United States. Cornelius had originally been shipped to a plantation so far from a church that he had married in a civil ceremony. [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. [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. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. Many have been located; however, it is difficult to determine exactly how many were exploited by the University in this financial transaction. [2] As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. Several substitutions were made to the initial list of those to be sold, and 91 of those initially listed remained in Maryland. 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). 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. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. 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. 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. 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. In 2019, 66 percent of Georgetown students voted in a referendum to add a $27.20 student fee to be. Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. 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. [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 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. [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. Georgetown and the College of the Holy Cross renamed buildings, and the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States pledged to raise $100 million for the descendants of slaves owned by the Jesuits. 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. June 1838 the University benefited from the sale of 272 slaves, some as young as 2 months old to finance the ailing institution. [50], The 1838 slave sale returned to the public's awareness in the mid-2010s. [5] McSherry delayed selling the slaves because their market value had greatly diminished as a result of the Panic of 1837,[24] and because he was searching for a buyer who would agree to these conditions. 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. He might have disappeared from view again for a time, save for something few could have counted on: his deep, abiding faith. [32] An unknown number of slaves may also have run away and escaped transportation. There is joy in that, she said, exhilaration even. 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. Maryland Province Archives at Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, A passage from the Rev. Tweet. As Black Americans as descendants of enslaved people we have always been told youll never know who you are. Continue scrolling down for more amazing information, videos, books and value items. In the case of Amazon, please use our links whenever you shop. The 1970s saw an increase in public scholarship on the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership. 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. Through the project, genealogists have discovered 8,425 descendants of enslaved people sold in 1838. African-Americans are often a fleeting presence in the documents of the 1800s. [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. [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. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. The articles of agreement listed each of the slaves by name to be sold. Limit 20 per day. All of this was new to Ms. Crump, except for the name Cornelius or Neely, as Cornelius was known. 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. The church records helped lead to a 69-year-old woman in Baton Rouge named Maxine Crump. History has attempted to take the sting out of it which is impossible. 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. Behind her are sugar plantations and the sugar mill where her ancestors worked. [4][a] Several of the Jesuits' slaves unsuccessfully attempted to sue for their freedom in the courts in the 1790s. [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. A fantastic research tool with video camera, navigation programs and so much more. James Van de Veldes. Georgetown University Sold Hundreds of SlavesDoes That Still Matter? The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. 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. Advertisement In Bayonne-Johnson's hands,. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. 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. [5] In October of that year, Mulledy succeeded McSherry, who was dying, as provincial superior. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html. [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. Only 206 of the 272 slaves were actually delivered because the Jesuits permitted the elderly and those with spouses living nearby and not owned by Jesuits to remain in Maryland. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. However, the total number of slaves is only one way to measure the level of slavery in a country. Photo by Claire Vail. (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 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. [66] In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. [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. We also posted a 5 part mini-series on the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres in the history of America. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. [34] During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism. this helps us promote a safe and accountable online community, and allows us to update you when other commenters reply to your posts. The Rev. Continue to scroll for fascinating Videos and Books to enhance your learning experience. In recognizing the role Georgetown in the use of slaves as money, they are recognizing some of the depths of what slavery actually represented. Some tips for making the most of your twilight years. To pay that debt, the university sold 272 slaves the very people that helped build the school itself. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II An astonishing book. The site includes a searchable database with genealogies of descendants who have died. 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 college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations, university officials say. (The two men would swap positions by 1838.). Many institutions owned slaves and Georgetown University was no exception. [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. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. [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. Documents provide the factual framework, but people supply the human story.. But thewebsiteincludes a spreadsheet of 314 individuals whom genealogists have identified as being part of the group sold by the Jesuit priests. [41] The Jesuits never received the total $115,000 that was owed under the agreement. Maxine Crump, 69, a descendant of one of the slaves sold by the Jesuits, in a Louisiana sugar cane field where researchers believe her ancestor once worked. (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 . [137] Thomas C. Hindman (1828-1868), American politician and Confederate general. James Van de Velde, a Jesuit who visited Louisiana, wrote in a letter in 1848. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. It would not survive, Father Mulledy feared, without an influx of cash. The slaves were also identified as collateral in the event that Johnson, Batey, and their guarantors defaulted on their payments. Slaves worked on the Jesuit plantations in Maryland that helped to sustain the Jesuits' religious and educational mission. But few were lucky enough to escape. [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. [13], Beginning in 1800, there were instances of the Jesuit plantation managers freeing individual slaves or permitting slaves to purchase their freedom. He has contacted a few, including Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, president of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane, who is helping to track the Jesuit slaves with her group. This coincided with a protest by a group of students against keeping Mulledy's and McSherry's names on the buildings the day before. 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. Although modern slavery is not always easy to recognize, it continues to exist in nearly every country. The institution came under fire last fall, with students demanding justice for the slaves in the 1838 sale. You can either click on the link in your confirmation email or simply re-enter your email address below to confirm it. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. So in June 1838, he negotiated a deal with Henry Johnson, a member of the House of Representatives, and Jesse Batey, a landowner in Louisiana, to sell Cornelius and the others. It is also emblematic of the complex entanglement of American higher education and religious institutions with slavery. 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. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. Jesuit priests in Maryland sold 272 slaves to Louisiana plantations in 1838 to fund Georgetown . 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. It is better to prevent than to attempt to remedy. [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. [12], One of the Maryland Jesuits' institutions, Georgetown College (later known as Georgetown University), also rented slaves. But he said he could not stop thinking about the slaves, whose names had been in Georgetowns archives for decades. 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. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. [27], The articles of agreement listed each of the slaves being sold by name. 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.