The article details how the sold slaves were transported to three Louisiana plantations, where they faced brutal treatment. Mr. Cellini, whose genealogists have already traced more than 200 of the slaves from Maryland to Louisiana, believes there may be thousands of living descendants. 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. But the revelations about her lineage and the church she grew up in have unleashed a swirl of emotions. . 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. [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. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. 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. [56] An undergraduate student also brought this to public attention in several articles published by the school newspaper, The Hoya between 2014 and 2015, about the university's relationship with slavery and the slave sale. At the time, the Catholic Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, said the Rev. 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. The worn gravestone had toppled, but the wording was plain: Neely Hawkins Died April 16, 1902.. [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. Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. That man, Thomas Mulledy, then the president of Georgetown University, had sold 272 slaves to pay off a massive debt strangling the university. It also notes slaves who had run away, and those who had been "married off." However, the total number of slaves is only one way to measure the level of slavery in a country. Mismanaged and inefficient, the Maryland plantations no longer offered a reliable source of income for Georgetown College, which had been founded in 1789. Continue to scroll for fascinating Videos and Books to enhance your learning experience. Keynote || Radcliffe Institute WELCOME Lizabeth Cohen, Dean, Radcliffe Institute, and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University OPENING REMARKS (12:07) Drew Gilpin Faust, President and Lincoln Professor of History, Harvard University KEYNOTE (15:51) Ta-Nehisi Coates, Journalist; National Correspondent, the Atlantic: Author, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015) and The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood (Spiegel & Grau, 2008) Conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Drew Gilpin Faust (34:37). Georgetown has renamed one of its buildings Isaac Hawkins Hall named after the first enslaved on the list of the account of the sale. [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. Youll never know where you came from, said Mlisande Short-Colomb, a descendant of the group of slaves, in a statement about the project. The church records helped lead to a 69-year-old woman in Baton Rouge named Maxine Crump. [3], Much of this land was put to use as plantations, the revenue from which financed the Jesuits' ministries. Jan Roothaan, who headed the Jesuits international organization from Rome and was initially reluctant to authorize the sale. 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. For the eighth year, the Forum was hosted by The Atlantic in partnership with the Aspen Institute. They worried that new owners might not allow the slaves to practice their Catholic faith. [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. 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. But the 1838 slave sale organized by the Jesuits, who founded and ran Georgetown, stands out for its sheer size, historians say. [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. 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. History has attempted to take the sting out of it which is impossible. [71] The university instead decided to raise $400,000 per year in voluntary donations for the benefit of descendants. On June 19, 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus agreed to sell 272 slaves to two Louisiana planters, Henry Johnson and Jesse Batey, for $115,000 (equivalent to approximately $2.96million in 2021). The internal slave trade in the United States, also known as the domestic slave trade, the Second Middle Passage and the interregional slave trade, was the term for the domestic trade of enslaved people within the United States that reallocated slaves across states during the Antebellum period.It was most significant after 1808, when the importation of slaves was prohibited. Father Mulledy took most of the down payment he received from the sale about $500,000 in todays dollars and used it to help pay off the debts that Georgetown had incurred under his leadership. The sale of 272 slaves in 1838 rescued the College from crushing debt. ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' 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. Why am I being asked to create an account? [7] As early as 1814, the trustees of the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen discussed manumitting all their slaves and abolishing slavery on the Jesuit plantations,[10] though in 1820, they decided against universal manumission. Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, a descendant of another of the slaves sold by the Jesuits, is the president of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane, Wash., which is helping to track the slaves and their families. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. [27], The articles of agreement listed each of the slaves being sold by name. The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. A Reflection for Friday of the First Week of Lent, by Jill Rice. On June 19, 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus agreed to sell 272 slaves to two Louisiana planters, Henry Johnson and Jesse Batey, for $115,000 (equivalent to approximately $2.96 million in 2021). [35][34] Benedict Fenwick, the Bishop of Boston, privately lamented the fate of the slaves and considered the sale an extreme measure. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime. It is interesting that the date was June 19th as many years later, it was on what is now recognized as Juneteenth. 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. Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. She does not put much stock in what she describes as casual institutional apologies. But she would like to see a scholarship program that would bring the slaves descendants to Georgetown as students. (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. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. 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. Slavery was much more than the theft of labor; it was the deprivation of liberty for which this country professes so loudly. This coincided with a protest by a group of students against keeping Mulledy's and McSherry's names on the buildings the day before. Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime . 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. [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. That alumnus, Richard J. Cellini, the chief executive of a technology company and a practicing Catholic, was troubled that neither the Jesuits nor university officials had tried to trace the lives of the enslaved African-Americans or compensate their progeny. Inspiring Stories of Black History and Achievement, 272 Slaves Sold to Finance Georgetown University. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. The sale prompted immediate outcry from fellow Jesuits. Thomas Hibbert (1710-1780), English merchant, he became rich from slave labor on his Jamaican plantations. THEY NEED TO BE FOUND AND LINKED. The next year, Pope Gregory XVI explicitly barred Catholics from engaging in this traffic in Blacks no matter what pretext or excuse.. (Valuable Plantation and Negroes for Sale, read one newspaper advertisement in 1852.). Slaves and the products they produced were responsible for well over 50% of the entire GNP of the United States. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? We also hope to work with you on additional opportunities for engaging with those who many not be able to attend in-person gatherings. Anyone can read what you share. They recognize that despite their principals, they recognized the theft of labor, the destruction of families and the long term devastation that this inflicted on an entire race of people. In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Catholic Church were among the largest slaveholding institutions in America. [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. The hope was to eventually identify the slaves descendants. 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. Ms. Crump is a familiar figure in Baton Rouge. Your email address will not be published. This sale was overseen by Provincial Superior William McSherry and Friar Thomas Mulledy. By the 1830s, however, their physical and religious conditions had improved considerably. Some slaves suffered at the hands of a cruel overseer. [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. Jesse Batey died in 1851 and the White Oak Plantation was sold. 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. 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. [12], One of the Maryland Jesuits' institutions, Georgetown College (later known as Georgetown University), also rented slaves. The two feared that because the public would not accept additional manumitted blacks, the Jesuits would be forced to sell their slaves en masse. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. We have been here since the founding of this country, and we are a significant part of the American experience.. Joseph Zwinge (identified as "J.Z.") Share with your friends! A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Dr. Rothman said. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. 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. Revealed: The Slave Sold to Save Georgetown by Stacy M. Brown March 22, 2017 Frank Campbell was sold in 1838 to help save Georgetown. They could then make 40% on the labor of the slave and pay the bank 8%. Others, including two of Corneliuss uncles, ran away before they could be captured. [37] As censure for the scandal,[39] Roothaan ordered Mulledy to remain in Europe,[35] and Mulledy lived in exile in Nice until 1843. [24], Mulledy quickly made arrangements to carry out the sale. More than a dozen universities including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and the University of Virginia have publicly recognized their ties to slavery and the slave trade. [65], On April 18, 2017, DeGioia, along with the provincial superior of the Maryland Province, and the president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, held a liturgy in which they formally apologized on behalf of their respective institutions for their participation in slavery. Mr. Cellini was on the line. Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. The Jesuits ultimately received payment many years late and never received the full $115,000. The Jesuits decided that the elderly would not be sold south and instead would be permitted to remain in Maryland. On November 14, 2015, DeGioia announced that he and the university's board of directors accepted the working group's recommendation, and would rename the buildings accordingly. [50] Curran also published Georgetown University's official, bicentennial history in 1993, in which he wrote about the university's and Jesuits' relationship with slavery. Thomas F. Mulledy, president of Georgetown from 1829 to 1838, and again from 1845 to 1848, arranged the sale. But few were lucky enough to escape. On that same day, the university rededicated two buildings previously named for former university presidents who were priests and supporters of the slave trade. . 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. Advertisement In Bayonne-Johnson's hands,. 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. Central concepts and key points are illustrated through campus examples. [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. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II An astonishing book. [2] As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. 51 slaves were to be sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then shipped to Louisiana. The ship manifest of the Katharine Jackson, available in full at the. [9] The main crops grown were tobacco and corn. Tweet. 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. Some tips for making the most of your twilight years. 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. Hundreds of Blacks were slaughtered and 10,000 left homeless in this largely unknown event. [34] During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism. Father Mulledy promised his superiors that the slaves would continue to practice their religion. 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. All of this was new to Ms. Crump, except for the name Cornelius or Neely, as Cornelius was known. Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. [41] The Jesuits never received the total $115,000 that was owed under the agreement. She is outraged that the churchs leaders sanctioned the buying and selling of slaves, and that Georgetown profited from the sale of her ancestors. [50], The 1838 slave sale returned to the public's awareness in the mid-2010s. (Ms. Bayonne-Johnson discovered her connection through an earlier effort by the university to publish records online about the Jesuit plantations.). The condition of slaves on the plantations varied over time, as did the condition of the Jesuits living with them. A Jesuit reports on the slaves' religious life in Louisiana, 1848, Chatham Plantation, Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Thomas R. Murphy, a historian at Seattle University who has written a book about the Jesuits and slavery. Logging in will also give you access to commenting features on our website. This was only a portion of the slaves bought and sold by the Maryland Jesuits over time.[1]. [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. [17], Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. 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. [4][a] Several of the Jesuits' slaves unsuccessfully attempted to sue for their freedom in the courts in the 1790s. 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. 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. Melvin Robert and Joya Mia Italiano look into Georgetown Universitys response on the Lip News. 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 . Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842-1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. This is the original list of slaves from the Jesuit plantations compiled in preparation for the sale in 1838. Three Jesuits traveled aboard The Ark and The Dove on Lord Baltimore's voyage to settle Maryland in 1634. in Fr. To pay that debt, the university sold 272 slaves the very people that helped build the school itself. Joseph Carberry, 1824 GSA29: Priscilla Queen petitions for her freedom, 1810 GSA30: Edward Queen petitions for his freedom, 1791 GSA31: Proceedings of the General Chapter at White Marsh, May 1789 GSA32: Fanny & her family, 1815 However, the remainder of the money received did go to funding Jesuit formation. What remains is what is owed to the descendants. The enslaved were grandmothers and grandfathers, carpenters and blacksmiths, pregnant women and anxious fathers, children and infants, who were fearful, bewildered and despairing as they saw their families and communities ripped apart by the sale of 1838. [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. Check out some of the. 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 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. In 1870, he appeared in the census for the first time. The 1970s saw an increase in public scholarship on the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership. He was about 48 then, a father, a husband, a farm laborer and, finally, a free man. In the case of Amazon, please use our links whenever you shop. [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. 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.
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