[17], Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. 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. Many have been located; however, it is difficult to determine exactly how many were exploited by the University in this financial transaction. She feels great sadness as she envisions Cornelius as a young boy, torn from everything he knew. 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). 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. She is outraged that the churchs leaders sanctioned the buying and selling of slaves, and that Georgetown profited from the sale of her ancestors. However, the total number of slaves is only one way to measure the level of slavery in a country. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. [26] Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. With time, Georgetown professors, students and alumni are taking a look at this portion and tracking the people sold to finance the institution. (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 . 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. CNN In 1838, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved people to pay off the university's debts. After the Jesuits vacated the buildings, Ryan and Mulledy Halls lay vacant, while Gervase Hall was put to other use. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. William McSherry, the college presidents involved in the sale, from two campus buildings. -- Georgetown University has announced that descendants of 272 slaves, from whose sale the school profited in 1838, will receive "an advantage in the admissions process" as part of a larger . What Does It Owe Their Descendants? We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. 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. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. 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. [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. Check out some of the. 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. Unknown because that portion of history is so like anything that reflects on the horrors of slavery preempted from our history. 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. 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. This was only a portion of the slaves bought and sold by the Maryland Jesuits over time.[1]. The Rev. [66] In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. Copyright 2023 America Press Inc. | All Rights Reserved. [15] Alice Clifton (c. 1772-unknown), as an enslaved teenager, she was a defendant in an infanticide trial in 1787. Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. The site includes a searchable database with genealogies of descendants who have died. Michelle Miller reports. [29] The slaves Mulledy gathered were sent on the three-week voyage aboard the Katherine Jackson,[27] which departed Alexandria on November 13 and arrived in New Orleans on December 6. Participants in this discussion are: Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University. Now shes working for justice. [48] It is one of the most well-documented slave sales of its era. 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 receive a small royalty without cost to you. Books and Textbooks One of the greatest ways to advance your life choices and future. [11] On some plantations, the majority of slaves did not work because they were too young or old. And the 1838 sale worth about $3.3 million in todays dollars was organized by two of Georgetowns early presidents, both Jesuit priests. They could then make 40% on the labor of the slave and pay the bank 8%. [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. [72] In 2021, the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States pledged to raise $100million for a newly created Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, which would aim to ultimately raise $1billion, with the purpose of working for the benefit of descendants of all slaves owned by the Jesuits. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. Most of the 314 enslaved people were sent to Louisiana, but about a third remained in Maryland or were sold to other locations, according to an article on the website. 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. 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. As a frequent reader of our website, you know how important Americas voice is in the conversation about the church and the world. In recognizing the role Georgetown in the use of slaves as money, they are recognizing some of the depths of what slavery actually represented. 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.. [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. Slaves were collateral and could be used to mortgage land and other goods. And she learned that Cornelius had worked the soil of a 2,800-acre estate that straddled the Bayou Maringouin. [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. Soon, the two men and their teams were working on parallel tracks. What can you do to make amends?. [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. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. [24], Mulledy quickly made arrangements to carry out the sale. The two women drove on the narrow roads that line the green, rippling sugar cane fields in Iberville Parish. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. It soon became clear that Roothaan's conditions had not been fully met. We have committed to finding ways that members of the Georgetown and Descendant communities can be engaged together in efforts that advance racial justice and enable every member of our Georgetown community to confront and engage with Georgetowns history with slavery.. (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. 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. Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. The Rev. Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime . In 2019, 66 percent of Georgetown students voted in a referendum to add a $27.20 student fee to be. In April 2017, Georgetown renamed buildings that had honored university leaders responsible for selling those enslaved Africans to Louisiana plantations. The church records helped lead to a 69-year-old woman in Baton Rouge named Maxine Crump. The sale however is the largest one acknowledged to date. One building is now named in honor of a slave who was 65 years old when he was sold in 1838. But six years after he appeared in the census, and about three decades after the birth of his first child, he renewed his wedding vows with the blessing of a priest. Roughly two-thirds of the Jesuits former slaves including Cornelius and his family had been shipped to two plantations so distant from churches that they never see a Catholic priest, the Rev. Other industries made loads of money indirectly. 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 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. Some wrote emotional letters to Roothaan denouncing the morality of the sale. John DeGioia, President, Georgetown University. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. New England ship builders made ships to bring people to this country. Banks would finance land purchases using slaves as collateral. (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. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. And the money raised by the sale would not be used to pay off debt or for operating expenses. Slaves and the products they produced were responsible for well over 50% of the entire GNP of the United States. 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. [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. To this day the search continues. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. A Reflection for Saturday of the First Week of Lent, by Christopher Parker. 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. 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. They also established schools on their lands. 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?
