Some tips for making the most of your twilight years. Soon, the two men and their teams were working on parallel tracks. He was valued at $900. To comment or make suggestions on future posts, use Contact Us. Share with your friends! We ask our visitors to confirm their email to keep your account secure and make sure you're able to receive email from us. 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. 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. He demanded that Mulledy travel to Rome to answer the charges of disobeying orders and promoting scandal. The Jesuits used the proceeds to benefit then-Georgetown College. 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. [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. During this time, the Jesuits funded some of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in America in part through profits earned on their plantations. (The two men would swap positions by 1838.). We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. Were sorry registration isn't working smoothly for you. On that same day, the university rededicated two buildings previously named for former university presidents who were priests and supporters of the slave trade. A Jesuit reports on the slaves' religious life in Louisiana, 1848, Chatham Plantation, Ascension Parish, Louisiana. . Check out some of the. Mismanaged and inefficient, the Maryland plantations no longer offered a reliable source of income for Georgetown College, which had been founded in 1789. 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. In recognizing the role Georgetown in the use of slaves as money, they are recognizing some of the depths of what slavery actually represented. Thomas F. Mulledy and 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). Now they are real to me, she said, more real every day.. 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. In 1870, he appeared in the census for the first time. Descendants are learning new links to their pasts as a result of the project. [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. Revealed: The Slave Sold to Save Georgetown by Stacy M. Brown March 22, 2017 Frank Campbell was sold in 1838 to help save Georgetown. Georgetown University in Washington, seen from across the Potomac River. 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: Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. Her great-uncle had the name, as did one of her cousins. She still wants to know more about Corneliuss beginnings, and about his life as a free man. Several substitutions were made to the initial list of those to be sold, and 91 of those initially listed remained in Maryland. Jesuit priests in Maryland sold 272 slaves to Louisiana plantations in 1838 to fund Georgetown . [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. Johnson and Batey agreed to pay $115,000,[5] equivalent to $2.96million in 2021,[25] over the course of ten years plus six percent annual interest. But the decision to sell virtually all of their enslaved African-Americans in the 1830s left some priests deeply troubled. One-hundred-seventy-eight years ago, Georgetown University was free to everyone who was able to attend; it was also massively in debt. 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. To this day the search continues. [27] The agreement provided that 51 slaves would be sent to the port of Alexandria, Virginia in order to be shipped to Louisiana. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. Now, for the first time, Ms. Crump understood its origins. 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. This coincided with a protest by a group of students against keeping Mulledy's and McSherry's names on the buildings the day before. 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. [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. The sale prompted immediate outcry from fellow Jesuits. The New York Times would like to hear from people who have done research into their genealogical history. The sale of 272 slaves in 1838 rescued the College from crushing debt. The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. Jan Roothaan, who headed the Jesuits international organization from Rome and was initially reluctant to authorize the sale. We ask readers to log in so that we can recognize you as a registered user and give you unrestricted access to our website. [2] As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. [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. Mr. Cellini is an unlikely racial crusader. In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over a 5-year period stretching from 1838 to 1843. 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. 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. 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. But few were lucky enough to escape. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry. This message was delivered to more than 100 descendants of the original enslaved people who had been sol to finance the institution. Acknowledging the changing realities and increasing demands placed on contemporary postsecondary education, this book meets educators where they are and offers an effective design framework for what it means to move beyond equity being a buzzword in higher education. Georgetown Jesuits enslaved her ancestors. [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. Remembrance Hall became Anne Marie Becraft Hall, after a free black woman who founded a school for black girls in the Georgetown neighborhood and later joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Its hard to know what could possibly reconcile a history like this, he said. 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. 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. He addressed his concerns to Father Mulledy, who three years earlier had returned to his post as president of Georgetown. At the time, the Catholic Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, said the Rev. The ship manifest of the Katharine Jackson, available in full at the. Slaves and the products they produced were responsible for well over 50% of the entire GNP of the United States. To see the posts, click here. [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. 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. Amazing! If youre already a subscriber or donor, thank you! Leaders in policy, business, technology, science, history, arts and culture engaged with top journalists on the most consequential issues of our time. History must be faced in order to heal and move forward! Jesse Batey died in 1851 and the White Oak Plantation was sold. [13], Beginning in 1800, there were instances of the Jesuit plantation managers freeing individual slaves or permitting slaves to purchase their freedom. 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. So Judy Riffel, one of the genealogists hired by Mr. Cellini, began following a chain of weddings and births, baptisms and burials. 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. Articles in the Woodstock Letters, an internal Jesuit publication that later became accessible to the public, routinely addressed both subjects during the course of its existence from 1872 to 1969. 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. [27] Johnson allowed these slaves to remain in Maryland because he intended to return and try to buy their spouses as well. [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. [67] The university also gave permanent names to the two buildings. Melvin Robert and Joya Mia Italiano look into Georgetown Universitys response on the Lip News. (Courtesy of Ellender Library) In 1838, two priests who served as president of Georgetown University orchestrated the sale of 272 people to pay off debts at the school. [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. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. To see information on Juneteenth, click here. None of those conditions were met, university officials said. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. 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. [136] Eufrosina Hinard (born 1777), a free black woman in New Orleans, she owned slaves and leased them to others. [70], In 2019, undergraduate students at Georgetown voted in a non-binding referendum to impose a symbolic reparations fee of $27.20 per student. Upon receipt of these 51, Johnson and Batey were to pay the first $25,000. [52] In 2014, renovation began on Ryan and Mulledy Halls to convert them into a student residence. [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. An inspector scrutinized the cargo on Dec. 6, 1838. Alfred Francis Russell (1817-1884), 10th President of Liberia. That building is now known as Freedom Hall. 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. 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.. [66] In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. Georgetown owned these human beings and they had been used to build the institutions physical buildings, tend farms and perform hard labor under rigid control. 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 slaves were also identified as collateral in the event that Johnson, Batey, and their guarantors defaulted on their payments. [5] In October of that year, Mulledy succeeded McSherry, who was dying, as provincial superior. By the 1840s, word was trickling back to Washington that the slaves new owners had broken their promises. 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. 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. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. [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. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. We have been here since the founding of this country, and we are a significant part of the American experience.. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. One building is now named in honor of a slave who was 65 years old when he was sold in 1838. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. [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. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. Share. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human beings. There is joy in that, she said, exhilaration even. Login to post. Much more than a way to chat. Other industries made loads of money indirectly. 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. 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. 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. The college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations, university officials say. [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. It is interesting that the date was June 19th as many years later, it was on what is now recognized as Juneteenth. The Jesuits ultimately received payment many years late and never received the full $115,000. A Reflection for Saturday of the First Week of Lent, by Christopher Parker. [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. 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. WASHINGTON The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nations capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. The 1970s saw an increase in public scholarship on the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership. [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. Georgetown was a prominent Jesuit priests. This is not a disembodied group of people, who are nameless and faceless, said Mr. Cellini, 52, whose company, Briefcase Analytics, is based in Cambridge, Mass. [64] Mulledy Hall, a student dormitory that opened in 1966,[65] was renamed as BrooksMulledy Hall in 2016, adding the name of a later president, John E. Brooks, who worked to racially integrate the college. 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. Thomas F. Mulledy, president of Georgetown from 1829 to 1838, and again from 1845 to 1848, arranged the sale. In 2017, Georgetown University held aday of remembranceduring which the president of the Jesuit order apologized to more than 100 descendants attending a contrition liturgy. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat.CreditWilliam Widmer for The New York Times. 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. 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. [71] The university instead decided to raise $400,000 per year in voluntary donations for the benefit of descendants. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II An astonishing book. In 1996, the Jesuit Plantation Project was established by historians at Georgetown, which made available to the public via the internet digitized versions of much of the Maryland Jesuits' archives, including the articles of agreement for the 1838 sale. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. The Rev. 51 slaves were to be sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then shipped to Louisiana. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human. 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. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. And she would like to see Corneliuss name, and those of his parents and children, inscribed on a memorial on campus. Ms. Crump, 69, has been asking herself that question, too. 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. 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 . What Does It Owe Their Descendants? Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance. At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. [45] Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk. Maryland Province Archives at Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, A passage from the Rev. 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. A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Dr. Rothman said. The institution came under fire last fall, with students demanding justice for the slaves in the 1838 sale. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. It is necessary to keep in mind that these people were free in their native country and enslaved once they got to America. The Jesuits decided that the elderly would not be sold south and instead would be permitted to remain in Maryland. Why am I being asked to create an account? [32] An unknown number of slaves may also have run away and escaped transportation. In total, there are 167 countries that still have slavery and around 46 million slaves today, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.. Slaves were collateral and could be used to mortgage land and other goods. THEY NEED TO BE FOUND AND LINKED. list of slaves sold by georgetown university. [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. [137] Thomas C. Hindman (1828-1868), American politician and Confederate general. She was the citys first black woman television anchor. The two feared that because the public would not accept additional manumitted blacks, the Jesuits would be forced to sell their slaves en masse. [9] The main crops grown were tobacco and corn. [26] Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. After the Jesuits vacated the buildings, Ryan and Mulledy Halls lay vacant, while Gervase Hall was put to other use. But when Ms. Riffel, the genealogist, told her where she thought he was buried, Ms. Crump knew exactly where to go. You can also manage your account details and your print subscription after logging in. In addition to the summary above, it is our intent to provide you with a more detailed look at the matter by providing videos and books that allow a deeper view. 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. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. [41] The Jesuits never received the total $115,000 that was owed under the agreement. [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. You can either click on the link in your confirmation email or simply re-enter your email address below to confirm it. Georgetown University announced on Tuesday it will create a fund that could generate close to $400,000 a year to benefit the descendants of slaves once sold by the university, the latest in the .

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