While it would seem as if there would be some mention of this in history, it remained largely unknown. And she would like to see Corneliuss name, and those of his parents and children, inscribed on a memorial on campus. 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. Slavery was much more than the theft of labor; it was the deprivation of liberty for which this country professes so loudly. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. Photo by Claire Vail. Although modern slavery is not always easy to recognize, it continues to exist in nearly every country. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II An astonishing book. Jan Roothaan, who headed the Jesuits international organization from Rome and was initially reluctant to authorize the sale. 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. 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. Isaac Hawkins was the first enslaved person listed in the 1838 sale document. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry. This message was delivered to more than 100 descendants of the original enslaved people who had been sol to finance the institution. 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. 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. This sale was overseen by Provincial Superior William McSherry and Friar Thomas Mulledy. Your email address will not be published. [5] In October of that year, Mulledy succeeded McSherry, who was dying, as provincial superior. ). [24], Mulledy quickly made arrangements to carry out the sale. Upon receipt of these 51, Johnson and Batey were to pay the first $25,000. In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Catholic Church were among the largest slaveholding institutions in America. Only 206 of the 272 slaves were actually delivered because the Jesuits permitted the elderly and those with spouses living nearby and not owned by Jesuits to remain in Maryland. By the 1840s, word was trickling back to Washington that the slaves new owners had broken their promises. Michelle Miller reports. Georgetown University Archives The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. Thomas Lilly reported. 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. GSA28: William Gaston entrusts a slave named Augustus to Fr. Share. [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. A photograph of Frank Campbell, one of 272 slaves sold to keep Georgetown University afloat, was found in a scrapbook at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. Within two weeks, Mr. Cellini had set up a nonprofit, the Georgetown Memory Project, hired eight genealogists and raised more than $10,000 from fellow alumni to finance their research. 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. Mr. Cellini was on the line. 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. WASHINGTON The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nations capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. They could then make 40% on the labor of the slave and pay the bank 8%. You are here: blueberry crumble cake delicious magazine; hendersonville nc city council candidates 2021; list of slaves sold by georgetown university . ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' Interview: Whats it like to photograph Pope Francis? [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. He has contacted a few, including Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, president of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane, who is helping to track the Jesuit slaves with her group. [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. Freedom Hall became Isaac Hawkins Hall, after the first slave listed on the articles of agreement for the 1838 sale. Georgetown is not the first or only university to own slaves. 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. But priests at the Jesuit plantations recounted the panic and fear they witnessed when the slaves departed. The New York Times would like to hear from people who have done research into their genealogical history. What has emerged from their research, and that of other scholars, is a glimpse of an insular world dominated by priests who required their slaves to attend Mass for the sake of their salvation, but also whipped and sold some of them. Slaves were often threatened with having family members sold away, splitting parents from even infants because of minor infractions as determined by the slave owner. He was about 48 then, a father, a husband, a farm laborer and, finally, a free man. 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. Thomas F. Mulledy, president of Georgetown from 1829 to 1838, and again from 1845 to 1848, arranged the sale. Today, the universitys leaders, students and alumni are grappling with how to confront that history. He might have disappeared from view again for a time, save for something few could have counted on: his deep, abiding faith. 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. The students organized a protest and a sit-in, using the hashtag #GU272 for the slaves who were sold. 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. In November, the university agreed to remove the names of the Rev. THEY NEED TO BE FOUND AND LINKED. 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. [39], While Roothaan ordered that the proceeds of the sale be used to provide for the training of Jesuits, the initial $25,000 was not used for that purpose. Descendants are learning new links to their pasts as a result of the project. In fact, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, University of Virginia did as well. We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. in Fr. Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Recorded Thursday, September 29, 2016, at the Washington Ideas Forum. [48] It is one of the most well-documented slave sales of its era. [64] Mulledy Hall, a student dormitory that opened in 1966,[65] was renamed as BrooksMulledy Hall in 2016, adding the name of a later president, John E. Brooks, who worked to racially integrate the college. It has been stated that value of slaves in America was more valuable than all the industrial and transportation capital of the United States in the first half of the 19th century. 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? The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. We encourage you to visit our website, call us at (202)-687-8330, or email us at [email protected] if you are interested in learning more or sharing your ideas and reflections. Ashby's account book at Newtown.For a spreadsheet with all the data transcribed, seeGSA5. (Valuable Plantation and Negroes for Sale, read one newspaper advertisement in 1852.). [29], Not all of the 272 slaves intended to be sold to Louisiana met that fate. It would not survive, Father Mulledy feared, without an influx of cash. But the 1838 slave sale organized by the Jesuits, who founded and ran Georgetown, stands out for its sheer size, historians say. (The two men would swap positions by 1838.). He was valued at $900. -- 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 . [27] Johnson allowed these slaves to remain in Maryland because he intended to return and try to buy their spouses as well. 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. You can also manage your account details and your print subscription after logging in. 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). In 2019, 66 percent of Georgetown students voted in a referendum to add a $27.20 student fee to be. A Reflection for Saturday of the First Week of Lent, by Christopher Parker. The second is now named for a free African-American woman who founded a school for Catholic black girls in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Since 2015, Georgetown has been working to address its historical relationship to slavery and will continue to do so, a Georgetown spokesman said in a statement to Religion News Service on Friday. 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. Use our links to Amazon anytime you shop Amazon. [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. Her ancestors, once amorphous and invisible, are finally taking shape in her mind. [46] Due to financial difficulties, Johnson sold half his property, including some of the slaves he had purchased in 1838, to Philip Barton Key in 1844. But few were lucky enough to escape. 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. In the list are links to affiliate partners. We also posted a 5 part mini-series on the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres in the history of America. list of slaves sold by georgetown university. The two women drove on the narrow roads that line the green, rippling sugar cane fields in Iberville Parish. The hope was to eventually identify the slaves descendants. 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. To see the posts, click here. [70], The Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen was created in 1792 to preserve the property of the. What remains is what is owed to the descendants. Jesse Batey died in 1851 and the White Oak Plantation was sold. Participants in this discussion are: Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University. New England ship builders made ships to bring people to this country. You can either click on the link in your confirmation email or simply re-enter your email address below to confirm it. [24] He located two Louisiana planters who were willing to purchase the slaves: Henry Johnson, a former United States Senator and governor of Louisiana, and Jesse Batey. Against the conditions agreed upon, families were separated due to this sale. Mismanaged and inefficient, the Maryland plantations no longer offered a reliable source of income for Georgetown College, which had been founded in 1789. She was the citys first black woman television anchor. [29] Some of the initial 272 slaves who were not delivered to Johnson were replaced with substitutes. 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. An alumnus, following the protest from afar, wondered if more needed to be done. From the 2016 Washington Ideas Forum. The Rev. The article details how the sold slaves were transported to three Louisiana plantations, where they faced brutal treatment. 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. By the 1830s, however, their physical and religious conditions had improved considerably. [12], One of the Maryland Jesuits' institutions, Georgetown College (later known as Georgetown University), also rented slaves. These are real people with real names and real descendants.. 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. ALL OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ON THIS PAGE HAVE PROFILES. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? Copyright 2023 America Press Inc. | All Rights Reserved. All of this was new to Ms. Crump, except for the name Cornelius or Neely, as Cornelius was known. The notation betrayed no hint of the turmoil on board. 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. History must be faced in order to heal and move forward! [2] As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. [27], The articles of agreement listed each of the slaves being sold by name. The children with Mr.. Logging in will also give you access to commenting features on our website. 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. Slaves were collateral and could be used to mortgage land and other goods. 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. Ms. Crump is a familiar figure in Baton Rouge. [43][44] In 1856, Washington Barrow sold the slaves he purchased from Batey to William Patrick and Joseph B. Woolfolk of Iberville Parish. 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. The presidents of Harvard University and Georgetown University discuss their institutions historic ties to slavery in a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. Please visit ourmembership pageto learn how you can invest in our work by subscribing to the magazine or making a donation. [136] Eufrosina Hinard (born 1777), a free black woman in New Orleans, she owned slaves and leased them to others. Some slaves suffered at the hands of a cruel overseer. Your email address will not be published. A Reflection for Friday of the First Week of Lent, by Jill Rice. 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. 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. Now that we have this data, my hope is that we can use it to open doors and make connections. To see the posts, click here. [66] In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. 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. Close to half of them remain alive. [45] Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk. Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. She found out about the Jesuits and Georgetown and the sea voyage to Louisiana. Examined and found correct, he wrote of Cornelius and the 129 other people he found on the ship. [17], Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. 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: ", 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. Documents provide the factual framework, but people supply the human story.. The worn gravestone had toppled, but the wording was plain: Neely Hawkins Died April 16, 1902.. [48] In 1977, the Maryland Province named Georgetown's Lauinger Library as the custodian of its historic archives, which were made available to the public through the Georgetown University Library, Saint Louis University Library, and Maryland State Library. The date when the last slaves were freed in Texas 18 months after they had officially freed at the end of the Civil War. 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. 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. 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. [9] The main crops grown were tobacco and corn. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. This is the original list of slaves from the Jesuit plantations compiled in preparation for the sale in 1838. Now students, professors and alumni want to know what happened to those men and women and what the university will do moving forward. It would be better to suffer financial disaster than suffer the loss of our souls with the sale of the slaves, wrote the Rev. The first payment on the remaining $90,000 would become due after five years. The name had been passed down from generation to generation in her family. 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. The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat. We pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry.. Now, with racial protests roiling college campuses, an unusual collection of Georgetown professors, students, alumni and genealogists is trying to find out what happened to those 272 men, women and children. To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list, For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. Twenty-seven years earlier, a document dated June 19, 1838, showed that Maryland Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to the owners of Louisiana plantations. It was his Catholicism, born on the Jesuit plantations of his childhood, that would provide researchers with a road map to his descendants. As a result, he had to sell his property in the 1840s and renegotiate the terms of his payment. Alfred Francis Russell (1817-1884), 10th President of Liberia. The sale prompted immediate outcry from fellow Jesuits. Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions. More than half were younger than 20, and nearly a third were not yet 10 years old. Peter Havermans wrote of an elderly woman who fell to her knees, begging to know what she had done to deserve such a fate, according to Robert Emmett Curran, a retired Georgetown historian who described eyewitness accounts of the sale in his research. 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). [24], Johnson was unable to pay according to the schedule of the agreement. Richard Cellini, the chief executive of a technology company and a Georgetown alumnus, hired eight genealogists to track down the slaves and their descendants. Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. It is better to prevent than to attempt to remedy. 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.
Roll Windows Down With Key Fob Dodge Caravan,
Travis Mills Soldier Net Worth,
Articles L