list of slaves sold by georgetown university

Leave a message for others who see this profile. list of slaves sold by georgetown university. 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. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. The sale however is the largest one acknowledged to date. They were looking to buy slaves in the Upper South more cheaply than they could in the Deep South, and agreed to Mulledy's asking price of approximately $400 per person. To see the posts, click here. [29], Not all of the 272 slaves intended to be sold to Louisiana met that fate. 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. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. But on this day, in the fall of 1838, no one was spared: not the 2-month-old baby and her mother, not the field hands, not the shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins, who was about 13 years old when he was forced onboard. [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. Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. Youll never know where you came from, said Mlisande Short-Colomb, a descendant of the group of slaves, in a statement about the project. 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 can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. The sale of 272 slaves in 1838 rescued the College from crushing debt. Focus Areas - Georgetown University Georgetown University confronts its history with slavery Now students, professors and alumni want to know what happened to those men and women and what the university will do moving forward. The hope was to eventually identify the slaves descendants. He was valued at $900. The condition of slaves on the plantations varied over time, as did the condition of the Jesuits living with them. 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. 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.. 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. 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. Examined and found correct, he wrote of Cornelius and the 129 other people he found on the ship. History of slaves sold for Georgetown detailed in new genealogical website This was only a portion of the slaves bought and sold by the Maryland Jesuits over time.[1]. This is the original list of slaves from the Jesuit plantations compiled in preparation for the sale in 1838. CNN In 1838, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved people to pay off the university's debts. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Join Amazon Prime Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. An inspector scrutinized the cargo on Dec. 6, 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. Slaves worked on the Jesuit plantations in Maryland that helped to sustain the Jesuits' religious and educational mission. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. [13], Beginning in 1800, there were instances of the Jesuit plantation managers freeing individual slaves or permitting slaves to purchase their freedom. A Reflection for Saturday of the First Week of Lent, by Christopher Parker. The ship manifest of the Katharine Jackson, available in full at the. It is also emblematic of the complex entanglement of American higher education and religious institutions with slavery. [24], Mulledy quickly made arrangements to carry out the sale. Georgetown Jesuits enslaved her ancestors. [137] Thomas C. Hindman (1828-1868), American politician and Confederate general. 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. The truth was closer to home than anyone knew", "272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance. 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. After the Jesuits vacated the buildings, Ryan and Mulledy Halls lay vacant, while Gervase Hall was put to other use. A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Dr. Rothman said. Georgetown Slavery Archive Date 1838 Contributor Adam Rothman Relation GSA63 Format PDF Language English Type Text Identifier GSA5 Text Item Type Metadata Original Format Spreadsheet Files Collection Sale of Maryland Jesuit's enslaved community to Louisiana in 1838 Tags Families, Plantations, Slaves Citation History must be faced in order to heal and move forward! The university itself owes its existence to this history, said Adam Rothman, a historian at Georgetown and a member of a university working group that is studying ways for the institution to acknowledge and try to make amends for its tangled roots in slavery. ", What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross 2016, "Historical Timeline: Events Affecting the GU272 from the 1838 Sale to the Present", "Bill of Sale from the Heirs of Jesse Batey to Washington Barrow, January 18, 1853", "Bill of Sale for Land and People from Washington Barrow to William Patrick and Joseph B. Woolfolk, February 4, 1856", "Bill of Sale for Land and 138 People from William Patrick and Joseph Woolfolk to Emily Sparks, Widow of Austin Woolfolk, July 16, 1859", "Henry Johnson's Sales of Enslaved Persons, 18441851", Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation 2016, "University Requests Change in Use for Ryan Hall and Mulledy Hall", "Renovation of Former Jesuit Residence Beginning May 19", "Slavery's Remnants, Buried and Overlooked", "Georgetown University to rename two buildings that reflect school's ties to slavery", "Announcing the Working Group on Slavery, Memory & Reconciliation", "Concrete Expressions of Georgetown's Jesuit Heritage: A Photographic Sampler of Campus Buildings and the Jesuits for Whom They are Named From the University Archives", "Heeding Demands, University Renames Buildings", "Mulledy Name To Be Removed From BrooksMulledy Hall", "President's Response to Report of the Mulledy/Healy Legacy Committee", "Georgetown Apologizes, Renames Halls After Slaves", "Georgetown Apologizes for 1838 Sale of More Than 270 Enslaved, Dedicates Buildings", "Georgetown University Plans Steps to Atone for Slave Past", "For Georgetown, Jesuits and Slavery Descendants, Bid for Racial Healing Sours Over Reparations", "Georgetown Students Agree to Create Reparations Fund", "Catholic Order Pledges $100 Million to Atone for Slave Labor and Sales", "Saving Souls and Selling Them: Jesuit Slaveholding and the Georgetown Slavery Archive", "Foundation and First Administration of the Maryland Province, Part I: Background", "Catholic Slaveowners and the Development of Georgetown University's Slave Hiring System, 17921862", Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation to the President of Georgetown University, The Lost Jesuit Slaves of Maryland: Searching for 91 people left behind in 1838, What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross, Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, Video of Isaac Hawkins Hall dedication ceremony from C-SPAN, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1838_Jesuit_slave_sale&oldid=1141447737, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 03:24. [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. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. We ask readers to log in so that we can recognize you as a registered user and give you unrestricted access to our website. [3], Much of this land was put to use as plantations, the revenue from which financed the Jesuits' ministries. 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. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' [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. However, the history of the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership was never secret. 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: [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. That building is now known as Freedom Hall. [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. It was his Catholicism, born on the Jesuit plantations of his childhood, that would provide researchers with a road map to his descendants. 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. And the money raised by the sale would not be used to pay off debt or for operating expenses. [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. [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. Modern Countries That Still Have Slavery | The Borgen Project A photo of the slave cabins at Laurel Valley in Thibodaux is part of the GU272 Memory Project. Inspiring Stories of Black History and Achievement, 272 Slaves Sold to Finance Georgetown University. Some children were sold without their parents, records show, and slaves were dragged off by force to the ship, the Rev. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. 51 slaves were to be sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then shipped to Louisiana. She runs a nonprofit, Dialogue on Race Louisiana, that offers educational programs on institutional racism and ways to combat it. [30] In total, only 206 are known to have been transported to Louisiana. Many institutions owned slaves and Georgetown University was no exception. 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. Many of them baptized Catholic, they were bought by planters to work. 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. 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. Thomas R. Murphy, a historian at Seattle University who has written a book about the Jesuits and slavery. The date when the last slaves were freed in Texas 18 months after they had officially freed at the end of the Civil War. [49] There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. We see that slavery was MUCH more than depriving people of their liberty and theft of their services, it was the cruel and long lasting emotional devastation of selling away loved ones, taking indecent liberties, cruel and inhumane treatment and so much more. The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat.CreditWilliam Widmer for The New York Times. One-hundred-seventy-eight years ago, Georgetown University was free to everyone who was able to attend; it was also massively in debt. [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. Glimpses of Slavery at Georgetown College | Georgetown University Library Jesuits commit $100 million to the descendants of people the - CNN [70], The Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen was created in 1792 to preserve the property of the. Father Mulledy promised his superiors that the slaves would continue to practice their religion. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. He was not yet five feet tall when he sailed onboard the Katharine Jackson, one of several vessels that carried the slaves to the port of New Orleans. [24] When he returned in November to gather the rest of the slaves, the plantation managers had their slaves flee and hide. James Van de Veldes. We also hope to work with you on additional opportunities for engaging with those who many not be able to attend in-person gatherings. [11] On some plantations, the majority of slaves did not work because they were too young or old. [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. [51] Other historians covered the subject in literature published between the 1980s and 2000s. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. [34] During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism. To this day the search continues. Mismanaged and inefficient, the Maryland plantations no longer offered a reliable source of income for Georgetown College, which had been founded in 1789. The slaves were also identified as collateral in the event that Johnson, Batey, and their guarantors defaulted on their payments.

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