Were sorry registration isn't working smoothly for you. people, women and others in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII. [5] In October of that year, Mulledy succeeded McSherry, who was dying, as provincial superior. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nations most prominent Jesuit priests. 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. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions. Families would not be separated. [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. [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. GSA28: William Gaston entrusts a slave named Augustus to Fr. 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. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. [26] Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. 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. It also features audio recordings in which descendants recall memories, from segregated education to family migration away from the South. 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. [50], The 1838 slave sale returned to the public's awareness in the mid-2010s. 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). But the decision to sell virtually all of their enslaved African-Americans in the 1830s left some priests deeply troubled. [13], Beginning in 1800, there were instances of the Jesuit plantation managers freeing individual slaves or permitting slaves to purchase their freedom. (The two men would swap positions by 1838.). Leaders in policy, business, technology, science, history, arts and culture engaged with top journalists on the most consequential issues of our time. History must be faced in order to heal and move forward! 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. 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. A Jesuit reports on the slaves' religious life in Louisiana, 1848, Chatham Plantation, Ascension Parish, Louisiana. (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 . [37] Roothaan was particularly concerned because it had become clear that, contrary to his order, families had been separated by the slaves' new owners. And she learned that Cornelius had worked the soil of a 2,800-acre estate that straddled the Bayou Maringouin. One building is now named in honor of a slave who was 65 years old when he was sold in 1838. [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. New England ship builders made ships to bring people to this country. [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. . A microcosm of the whole history of American slavery, Dr. Rothman said. [5] The first record of slaves working Jesuit plantations in Maryland dates to 1711, but it is likely that there were slave laborers on the plantations a generation before then. 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. [22], In October 1836, Roothaan officially authorized the Maryland Jesuits to sell their slaves, so long as three conditions were satisfied: the slaves were to be permitted to practice their Catholic faith, their families were not to be separated, and the proceeds of the sale had to be used to support Jesuits in training,[23] rather than to pay down debts. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human beings. Richard Cellini, the chief executive of a technology company and a Georgetown alumnus, hired eight genealogists to track down the slaves and their descendants. We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. Cardinal McElroy on radical inclusion for L.G.B.T. The worn gravestone had toppled, but the wording was plain: Neely Hawkins Died April 16, 1902.. 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. Mr. Cellini was on the line. The college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations, university officials say. The 1970s saw an increase in public scholarship on the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership. [48] It is one of the most well-documented slave sales of its era. In total, there are 167 countries that still have slavery and around 46 million slaves today, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.. As early as the 1780s, Dr. Rothman found, they openly discussed the need to cull their stock of human. 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. 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. [32] An unknown number of slaves may also have run away and escaped transportation. Required fields are marked *. Participants in this discussion are: Drew Gilpin Faust, President, Harvard University. [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. This coincided with a protest by a group of students against keeping Mulledy's and McSherry's names on the buildings the day before. [30] In total, only 206 are known to have been transported to Louisiana. Thomas Hibbert (1710-1780), English merchant, he became rich from slave labor on his Jamaican plantations. Joseph Zwinge (identified as "J.Z.") She found out about the Jesuits and Georgetown and the sea voyage to Louisiana. This resulted in families being split for economic reasons with no consideration of human relationships. 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. It was his Catholicism, born on the Jesuit plantations of his childhood, that would provide researchers with a road map to his descendants. ", New England Historic Genealogical Society, "They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' [69] Several groups of descendants have been created, which have lobbied Georgetown University and the Society of Jesus for reparations, and groups have disagreed with the form that their desired reparations should take. 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 remains is what is owed to the descendants. Several substitutions were made to the initial list of those to be sold, and 91 of those initially listed remained in Maryland. 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. ). We ask readers to log in so that we can recognize you as a registered user and give you unrestricted access to our website. 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. Banks would finance land purchases using slaves as collateral. Soon, the two men and their teams were working on parallel tracks. Some wrote emotional letters to Roothaan denouncing the morality of the sale. We encourage you to visit our website, call us at (202)-687-8330, or email us at descendants@georgetown.edu if you are interested in learning more or sharing your ideas and reflections. [36], Soon after the sale, Roothaan decided that Mulledy should be removed as provincial superior. 51 slaves were to be sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then shipped to Louisiana. 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. 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 Jesuits decided that the elderly would not be sold south and instead would be permitted to remain in Maryland. And the money raised by the sale would not be used to pay off debt or for operating expenses. 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. 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. [66] In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. On that same day, the university rededicated two buildings previously named for former university presidents who were priests and supporters of the slave trade. The Jesuits had sold off individual slaves before. [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. Unknown because that portion of history is so like anything that reflects on the horrors of slavery preempted from our history. An alumnus, following the protest from afar, wondered if more needed to be done. 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 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.. (Valuable Plantation and Negroes for Sale, read one newspaper advertisement in 1852.). if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. in Fr. All of this was new to Ms. Crump, except for the name Cornelius or Neely, as Cornelius was known. [71] The university instead decided to raise $400,000 per year in voluntary donations for the benefit of descendants. [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. [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. [37] As censure for the scandal,[39] Roothaan ordered Mulledy to remain in Europe,[35] and Mulledy lived in exile in Nice until 1843. But the revelations about her lineage and the church she grew up in have unleashed a swirl of emotions. It soon became clear that Roothaan's conditions had not been fully met. The website is part of a collaboration between Boston-based American Ancestors, also called the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and the Georgetown Memory Project, which was founded by Georgetown alumnus Richard Cellini. 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 . [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. Maryland Province Archives at Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, A passage from the Rev. He was about 48 then, a father, a husband, a farm laborer and, finally, a free man. She runs a nonprofit, Dialogue on Race Louisiana, that offers educational programs on institutional racism and ways to combat it. In recognizing the role Georgetown in the use of slaves as money, they are recognizing some of the depths of what slavery actually represented. [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. list of slaves sold by georgetown university. Other industries made loads of money indirectly. [34] In the years after the sale, it also became clear that most of the slaves were not permitted to carry on their Catholic faith because they were living on plantations far removed from any Catholic church or priest. 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. [53], With work complete, in August 2015, university president John DeGioia sent an open letter to the university announcing the opening of the new student residence, which also related Mulledy's role in the 1838 slave sale after stepping down as president of the university. The U.S. Department of State defines modern slavery as "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled . One building was renamed for Isaac Hawkins, first on the list of the 272 human beings sold in 1838. Its hard to know what could possibly reconcile a history like this, he said. In 1851, Thompson purchased the second half of Johnson's property, so that by the beginning of the Civil War, all the slaves sold by Mulledy to Johnson were owned by Thompson. 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. 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. [41] The Jesuits never received the total $115,000 that was owed under the agreement. Jesse Batey died in 1851 and the White Oak Plantation was sold. The presidents of Harvard University and Georgetown University discuss their institutions historic ties to slavery in a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates. [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.