The sale however is the largest one acknowledged to date. [8] These consisted primarily of the plantations of White Marsh in Prince George's County, St. Inigoes and Newtown Manor in St. Mary's County, St. Thomas Manor in Charles County, and Bohemia Manor in Cecil County. A Reflection for Saturday of the First Week of Lent, by Christopher Parker. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. With time, Georgetown professors, students and alumni are taking a look at this portion and tracking the people sold to finance the institution. 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. Continue to scroll for fascinating Videos and Books to enhance your learning experience. [29], Not all of the 272 slaves intended to be sold to Louisiana met that fate. And the money raised by the sale would not be used to pay off debt or for operating expenses. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. 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. The hope was to eventually identify the slaves descendants. Thomas F. Mulledy, president of Georgetown from 1829 to 1838, and again from 1845 to 1848, arranged the sale. [39], While Roothaan ordered that the proceeds of the sale be used to provide for the training of Jesuits, the initial $25,000 was not used for that purpose. Ms. Crump, 69, has been asking herself that question, too. The two feared that because the public would not accept additional manumitted blacks, the Jesuits would be forced to sell their slaves en masse. There is no indication that he received any response. Revealed: The Slave Sold to Save Georgetown by Stacy M. Brown March 22, 2017 Frank Campbell was sold in 1838 to help save Georgetown. Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. [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. [17], Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Recorded Thursday, September 29, 2016, at the Washington Ideas Forum. What can you do to make amends?. Having descendant voices present alongside historical documents is an essential part of the GU272 narrative, said Claire Vail, the projects director for American Ancestors, in an announcement about the website. 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. [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. (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. 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. [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. Georgetown Univ. Announces Admissions 'Advantage' for - ABC News In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. [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. It would be better to suffer financial disaster than suffer the loss of our souls with the sale of the slaves, wrote the Rev. Ashby's account book at Newtown.For a spreadsheet with all the data transcribed, seeGSA5. 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. To see the posts, click here. This resulted in families being split for economic reasons with no consideration of human relationships. Documents provide the factual framework, but people supply the human story.. They could then make 40% on the labor of the slave and pay the bank 8%. Many have been located; however, it is difficult to determine exactly how many were exploited by the University in this financial transaction. [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. The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. this helps us promote a safe and accountable online community, and allows us to update you when other commenters reply to your posts. Close to half of them remain alive. 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 . To pay that debt, the university sold 272 slaves the very people that helped build the school itself. Slaves and the products they produced were responsible for well over 50% of the entire GNP of the United States. Slave trade in the United States - Wikipedia The New York Times would like to hear from people who have done research into their genealogical history. One building was renamed for Isaac Hawkins, first on the list of the 272 human beings sold in 1838. 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. Its hard to know what could possibly reconcile a history like this, he said. His children and grandchildren also embraced the Catholic church. But the revelations about her lineage and the church she grew up in have unleashed a swirl of emotions. [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. List of slaves - Wikipedia They also established schools on their lands. 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. 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. Georgetown's sale of slaves in Louisiana 'a microcosm' of slavery in Ms. Crump, a retired television news anchor, was driving to Maringouin, her hometown, in early February when her cellphone rang. [56][62] In 2016, The New York Times published an article that brought the history of the Jesuits' and university's relationship with slavery to national attention. Her ancestors, once amorphous and invisible, are finally taking shape in her mind. By the 1840s, word was trickling back to Washington that the slaves new owners had broken their promises. people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. Soon, the two men and their teams were working on parallel tracks. None of those conditions were met, university officials said. [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. [34] During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism. 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. 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 plantation would be sold again and again and again, records show, but Corneliuss family remained intact. [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. Moreover, men and women held in bondage were also part of the day-to-day operation of Georgetown College in its early decades. 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. 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. 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. But when Ms. Riffel, the genealogist, told her where she thought he was buried, Ms. Crump knew exactly where to go. [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. Three Jesuits traveled aboard The Ark and The Dove on Lord Baltimore's voyage to settle Maryland in 1634. 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. 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. 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. 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. An alumnus, following the protest from afar, wondered if more needed to be done. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. 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. Jesuits commit $100 million to the descendants of people the - CNN [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. [32] An unknown number of slaves may also have run away and escaped transportation. In 1844, Henry Johnson sold a share of Chatham and would eventually sell the remainder of his land and enslaved people to John R. Thompson in 1851. 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. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their The records describe runaways, harsh plantation conditions and the anguish voiced by some Jesuits over their participation in a system of forced servitude. You dont have to purchase the item in the link but using the link helps both of us and we thank you for your support. We also hope to work with you on additional opportunities for engaging with those who many not be able to attend in-person gatherings. She later joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence, recognized as the oldest active Roman Catholic sisterhood in the Americas established by women of African descent. Modern Countries That Still Have Slavery | The Borgen Project Thomas Lilly reported. When you register, youll get unlimited access to our website and a free subscription to our email newsletter for daily updates with a smart, Catholic take on faith and culture from. [26] Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. [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. She found out about the Jesuits and Georgetown and the sea voyage to Louisiana. 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. Countries that Still Have Slavery 2023 - worldpopulationreview.com Georgetown was a prominent Jesuit priests. Check out some of the. Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more. Interview: Whats it like to photograph Pope Francis? The Rev. A fantastic research tool with video camera, navigation programs and so much more. Hundreds of Blacks were slaughtered and 10,000 left homeless in this largely unknown event. 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.. Youll never know where you came from, said Mlisande Short-Colomb, a descendant of the group of slaves, in a statement about the project. We ask our visitors to confirm their email to keep your account secure and make sure you're able to receive email from us. 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. Jan Roothaan, who headed the Jesuits international organization from Rome and was initially reluctant to authorize the sale. 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. [37] Roothaan was particularly concerned because it had become clear that, contrary to his order, families had been separated by the slaves' new owners. Some children were sold without their parents, records show, and slaves were dragged off by force to the ship, the Rev. Cardinal McElroy responds to his critics on sexual sin, the Eucharist, and LGBT and divorced/remarried Catholics, Worried you retired too early? . But few were lucky enough to escape. Central concepts and key points are illustrated through campus examples. 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. Now comes the task of making amends. And the 1838 sale worth about $3.3 million in todays dollars was organized by two of Georgetowns early presidents, both Jesuit priests. Father Mulledy promised his superiors that the slaves would continue to practice their religion. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. Now students, professors and alumni want to know what happened to those men and women and what the university will do moving forward. [47], While the 1838 slave sale gave rise to scandal at the time, the event eventually faded out of the public awareness. Login to post. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. [50], The 1838 slave sale returned to the public's awareness in the mid-2010s. We also posted a 5 part mini-series on the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres in the history of America. [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. Revealed: The Slave Sold to Save Georgetown Against the conditions agreed upon, families were separated due to this sale. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat. Census of slaves to be sold in 1838 - Georgetown University What remains is what is owed to the descendants. 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. [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. The Jesuits decided that the elderly would not be sold south and instead would be permitted to remain in Maryland. We encourage you to share the site on social media. It soon became clear that Roothaan's conditions had not been fully met. 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. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. History of slaves sold for Georgetown detailed in new genealogical Georgetown University Slave History & Reconciliation Project - Descendants 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. [27] Johnson allowed these slaves to remain in Maryland because he intended to return and try to buy their spouses as well. 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. It is interesting that the date was June 19th as many years later, it was on what is now recognized as Juneteenth. Georgetown University Archives The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. [35] He ordered McSherry to inform Mulledy that he had been removed as provincial superior, and that if Mulledy refused to step down, he would be dismissed from the Society of Jesus. This coincided with a protest by a group of students against keeping Mulledy's and McSherry's names on the buildings the day before. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. Corneliuss extended family was split, with his aunt Nelly and her daughters shipped to one plantation, and his uncle James and his wife and children sent to another, records show. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. The next year, Pope Gregory XVI explicitly barred Catholics from engaging in this traffic in Blacks no matter what pretext or excuse.. [37] As censure for the scandal,[39] Roothaan ordered Mulledy to remain in Europe,[35] and Mulledy lived in exile in Nice until 1843. Today, the universitys leaders, students and alumni are grappling with how to confront that history. It is necessary to keep in mind that these people were free in their native country and enslaved once they got to America. Advertisement In Bayonne-Johnson's hands,. Slaves worked on the Jesuit plantations in Maryland that helped to sustain the Jesuits' religious and educational mission. John DeGioia, President, Georgetown University. [45] Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk. History of slaves sold for Georgetown detailed in new genealogical website Your email address will not be published. GSA28: William Gaston entrusts a slave named Augustus to Fr. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. She is outraged that the churchs leaders sanctioned the buying and selling of slaves, and that Georgetown profited from the sale of her ancestors. (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. Other Jesuits voiced their anger to the Archbishop of Baltimore, Samuel Eccleston, who conveyed this to Roothaan. [5] In October of that year, Mulledy succeeded McSherry, who was dying, as provincial superior. His owner, Mr. Batey, had died, and Cornelius appeared on the plantations inventory, which included 27 mules and horses, 32 hogs, two ox carts and scores of other slaves. 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. He might have disappeared from view again for a time, save for something few could have counted on: his deep, abiding faith. But he said he could not stop thinking about the slaves, whose names had been in Georgetowns archives for decades. Meet Paul Haring, the CNS photographer who covered the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Francis, numerous international papal trips and the daily action of Vatican life for over a decade. The slaves were also identified as collateral in the event that Johnson, Batey, and their guarantors defaulted on their payments. 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. The ship manifest of the Katharine Jackson, available in full at the. [29] Some of the initial 272 slaves who were not delivered to Johnson were replaced with substitutes. But the 1838 slave sale organized by the Jesuits, who founded and ran Georgetown, stands out for its sheer size, historians say. Logging in will also give you access to commenting features on our website. 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. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions. Descendants - Georgetown University 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? [12], One of the Maryland Jesuits' institutions, Georgetown College (later known as Georgetown University), also rented slaves. Georgetown Jesuits enslaved her ancestors. To see the posts, click here. Georgetown reparations plan for slaves sold by university draws The articles of agreement listed each of the slaves by name to be sold. Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842-1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. Inspiring Stories of Black History and Achievement, 272 Slaves Sold to Finance Georgetown University. Michelle Miller reports. [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.