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One building is now named in honor of a slave who was 65 years old when he was sold in 1838. 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. The worn gravestone had toppled, but the wording was plain: Neely Hawkins Died April 16, 1902.. Password reset instructions will be sent to your registered email address. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. [27] Johnson allowed these slaves to remain in Maryland because he intended to return and try to buy their spouses as well. 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. 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. They change every day, so check often. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime. For Black History Month 2021, we focused on Black Medical Achievements, Inventors and Scientists.To see those posts, click here. [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. Jesuit Father Hans Zollner will be a consultant for the Diocese of Romes office dedicated to safeguarding minors and vulnerable people. Freedom Hall became Isaac Hawkins Hall, after the first slave listed on the articles of agreement for the 1838 sale. Examined and found correct, he wrote of Cornelius and the 129 other people he found on the ship. Ms. Crump, 69, has been asking herself that question, too. 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. Please visit ourmembership pageto learn how you can invest in our work by subscribing to the magazine or making a donation. [29] Some of the initial 272 slaves who were not delivered to Johnson were replaced with substitutes. The presidents of Harvard University and Georgetown University discuss their institutions historic ties to slavery in a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. She still wants to know more about Corneliuss beginnings, and about his life as a free man. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions. In all, the Jesuits sold 314 men, women and children over . 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. 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. [34] During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism. 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. He was allowed to continue paying well beyond the ten years initially allowed, and continued to do so until just before the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, during the Civil War. He addressed his concerns to Father Mulledy, who three years earlier had returned to his post as president of Georgetown. Why am I being asked to create an account? Other industries made loads of money indirectly. Now students, professors and alumni want to know what happened to those men and women and what the university will do moving forward. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. Following Batey's death, his West Oak plantation and the slaves living there were sold in January 1853 to Tennessee politician Washington Barrow and Barrow's son, John S. Barrow, a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 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. [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. 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. She prides herself on being unflappable. A white man, he admitted that he had never spent much time thinking about slavery or African-American history. 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. [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. [71] The university instead decided to raise $400,000 per year in voluntary donations for the benefit of descendants. Moreover, men and women held in bondage were also part of the day-to-day operation of Georgetown College in its early decades. 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. Books and Textbooks One of the greatest ways to advance your life choices and future. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. [27] The agreement provided that 51 slaves would be sent to the port of Alexandria, Virginia in order to be shipped to Louisiana. Limit 20 per day. Were sorry registration isn't working smoothly for you. 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. [17], Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. They also established schools on their lands. 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. Despite coverage of the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership and the 1838 sale in academic literature, news of these facts came as a surprise to the public in 2015, prompting a study of Georgetown University's and Jesuits' historical relationship with slavery. The first payment on the remaining $90,000 would become due after five years. Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. Use our links to Amazon anytime you shop Amazon. 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. His children and grandchildren also embraced the Catholic church. 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. Your email address will not be published. Some tips for making the most of your twilight years. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. . Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. (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. Ashby's account book at Newtown.For a spreadsheet with all the data transcribed, seeGSA5. Slaves were collateral and could be used to mortgage land and other goods. 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: We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. 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. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. Georgetown University Archives The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. But the 1838 slave sale organized by the Jesuits, who founded and ran Georgetown, stands out for its sheer size, historians say. In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Catholic Church were among the largest slaveholding institutions in America. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. They could then make 40% on the labor of the slave and pay the bank 8%. CNN In 1838, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved people to pay off the university's debts. We ask our visitors to confirm their email to keep your account secure and make sure you're able to receive email from us. In the case of Amazon, please use our links whenever you shop. Alfred "Teen" Blackburn (1842-1951), one of the last living survivors of slavery in the United States who had a clear recollection of it. [63][38], The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, of which Mulledy was the first president from 1843 to 1848, also began to reconsider the name of one of its buildings in 2015. At the time, the Catholic Church did not view slaveholding as immoral, said the Rev. [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. [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. 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. 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. John DeGioia, President, Georgetown University. 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. [26] Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. 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. 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. 2023 A Month of Tribute to 31 Women We Should All Know, Rosewood A Typical Race Riot in America. [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. Share with your friends! When the Society of Jesus was suppressed worldwide by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, ownership of the plantations was transferred from the Jesuits' Maryland Mission to the newly established Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen. 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. 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. [50], The 1838 slave sale returned to the public's awareness in the mid-2010s. [136] Eufrosina Hinard (born 1777), a free black woman in New Orleans, she owned slaves and leased them to others. [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. The number of slaves transported to Louisiana (206) and the number left in Maryland (91) add up to 297, not 272, because some of the 272 slaves initially identified to be sold were substituted with replacements. [24], Johnson was unable to pay according to the schedule of the agreement. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human beings. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. We encourage you to use these links as we receive a small royalty paid by the partner allowing you to help us without cost to you. 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. 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. The sale of these 272 slaves, known as the GU272, saved the university from foreclosure. But he said he could not stop thinking about the slaves, whose names had been in Georgetowns archives for decades. [13], Beginning in 1800, there were instances of the Jesuit plantation managers freeing individual slaves or permitting slaves to purchase their freedom. Her great-uncle had the name, as did one of her cousins. Tweet. Participants in this discussion are: Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University. The condition of slaves on the plantations varied over time, as did the condition of the Jesuits living with them. 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 With time, Georgetown professors, students and alumni are taking a look at this portion and tracking the people sold to finance the institution. [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. Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. The records describe runaways, harsh plantation conditions and the anguish voiced by some Jesuits over their participation in a system of forced servitude. And she learned that Cornelius had worked the soil of a 2,800-acre estate that straddled the Bayou Maringouin. people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. But few were lucky enough to escape. [45] Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk. Leaders in policy, business, technology, science, history, arts and culture engaged with top journalists on the most consequential issues of our time. In the list are links to affiliate partners. [42], Before the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, many slaves sold by the Jesuits changed ownership several times. 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.. We receive a small royalty without cost to you. While the plantations were initially worked by indentured servants, as the institution of indentured servitude began to fade away in Maryland, African slaves replaced indentured servants as the primary workers on the plantations. Colleges and universities have placed greater emphasis on education equity in recent years. The ship manifest of the Katharine Jackson, available in full at the. She was the citys first black woman television anchor. 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.. At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. Revealed: The Slave Sold to Save Georgetown by Stacy M. Brown March 22, 2017 Frank Campbell was sold in 1838 to help save Georgetown. Interview: Whats it like to photograph Pope Francis? We shop for the best values for you. 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.