In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Catholic Church were among the largest slaveholding institutions in America. [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. Isaac Hawkins was the first enslaved person listed in the 1838 sale document. You can also manage your account details and your print subscription after logging in. But the decision to sell virtually all of their enslaved African-Americans in the 1830s left some priests deeply troubled. Maryland Province Archives at Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, A passage from the Rev. [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. None of those conditions were met, university officials said. In recognizing the role Georgetown in the use of slaves as money, they are recognizing some of the depths of what slavery actually represented. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. A photo of the slave cabins at Laurel Valley in Thibodaux is part of the GU272 Memory Project. 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. 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. 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. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. [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. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. Are You A Liturgist With A Passion to Form Young Adults? 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.. It is interesting that the date was June 19th as many years later, it was on what is now recognized as Juneteenth. Books and Textbooks One of the greatest ways to advance your life choices and future. [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. 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). To this day the search continues. [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. 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. ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. THEY NEED TO BE FOUND AND LINKED. [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. Shoes and clothing were made in the North and shipped to be used by the enslaved people. 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. He addressed his concerns to Father Mulledy, who three years earlier had returned to his post as president of Georgetown. Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. To see the posts, click here. 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. What can you do to make amends?. 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. 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. One-hundred-seventy-eight years ago, Georgetown University was free to everyone who was able to attend; it was also massively in debt. Georgetown has renamed one of its buildings Isaac Hawkins Hall named after the first enslaved on the list of the account of the sale. Through the project, genealogists have discovered 8,425 descendants of enslaved people sold in 1838. 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. Richard Cellini, the chief executive of a technology company and a Georgetown alumnus, hired eight genealogists to track down the slaves and their descendants. [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. Families would not be separated. 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. And she would like to see Corneliuss name, and those of his parents and children, inscribed on a memorial on campus. Leave a message for others who see this profile. Many of them baptized Catholic, they were bought by planters to work. ALL OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ON THIS PAGE HAVE PROFILES. She prides herself on being unflappable. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human beings. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. 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. From these estates, the Jesuits traveled the countryside on horseback, administering the sacraments and catechizing the Catholic laity. The presidents of Harvard University and Georgetown University discuss their institutions historic ties to slavery in a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. But thewebsiteincludes a spreadsheet of 314 individuals whom genealogists have identified as being part of the group sold by the Jesuit priests. [137] Thomas C. Hindman (1828-1868), American politician and Confederate general. Georgetown University Archives The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. A Reflection for Saturday of the First Week of Lent, by Christopher Parker. The sale of 272 slaves in 1838 rescued the College from crushing debt. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? 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. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. Now they are real to me, she said, more real every day.. For Black History Month 2021, we focused on Black Medical Achievements, Inventors and Scientists.To see those posts, click here. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. 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. Now, for the first time, Ms. Crump understood its origins. There is no indication that he received any response. 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. . Several substitutions were made to the initial list of those to be sold, and 91 of those initially listed remained in Maryland. 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 1838, the Jesuit priests who ran the countrys top Catholic university needed money to keep it alive. Your email address will not be published. [24] When he returned in November to gather the rest of the slaves, the plantation managers had their slaves flee and hide. 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 . [5] In October of that year, Mulledy succeeded McSherry, who was dying, as provincial superior. Your email address will not be published. Eventually, Roothaan removed Thomas Mulledy as provincial superior for disobeying orders and promoting scandal, exiling him to Nice for several years. This was only a portion of the slaves bought and sold by the Maryland Jesuits over time.[1]. Jesse Batey died in 1851 and the White Oak Plantation was sold. Georgetown University (Daniel Slim/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images) Article A genealogical organization launched a free website Wednesday to help those who want to learn more about the. 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. [2] As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. June 1838 the University benefited from the sale of 272 slaves, some as young as 2 months old to finance the ailing institution. Others, including two of Corneliuss uncles, ran away before they could be captured. 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.

Thaddeus Stevens Speech On The Reconstruction Acts Summary, Mike Douglas Show Archives, Johns Hopkins School Of Public Health Acceptance Rate, Articles L