1838 Jesuit slave sale

Sale by the Jesuits in Maryland November 2021 November 2021 June 2023 1838 06 19 (first agreement) November 1838 (delivery) Origin: Cecil, Charles, Prince George's, and St. Mary's counties, Maryland, U.S. Destination: Ascension and Iberville parishes, Louisiana Thomas Mulledy William McSherry Henry Johnson Jesse Batey 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 $US-GDP 115000 1838 in US-GDP). 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. In 1836, the Jesuit superior general, Jan Roothaan, authorized the Maryland 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. It soon became clear that Roothaan's conditions had not been fully met. The Jesuits ultimately received payment many years late and never received the full $115,000. Only 206 of the 272 slaves were delivered because the Jesuits permitted the elderly and those with spouses who were living nearby and not owned by Jesuits to remain in Maryland. The sale prompted immediate outcry from fellow Jesuits. Some wrote emotional letters to Roothaan denouncing its immorality. Eventually, Roothaan removed Thomas Mulledy as provincial superior for disobeying orders and promoting scandal, exiling him to Nice for several years. 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 the Jesuits' historical relationship with slavery. Georgetown and the College of the Holy Cross renamed buildings, Georgetown granted legacy admissions preference to the slaves' descendants, and the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States pledged to raise $100 million for them. Background Jesuits in the United States History of slavery in Maryland Emergence of Jesuit manors thumb|Map of Jesuit sites in Maryland from the 17th to 19th centuries|alt=Map centered on the Chesapeake Bay with notations of Jesuit sites The Society of Jesus, whose members are known as Jesuits, established its first presence in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Thirteen Colonies alongside the first settlers of the British Province of Maryland, which had been founded as a Catholic colony and refuge. Three Jesuits traveled aboard The Ark and The Dove on Lord Baltimore's voyage to settle Maryland in 1634.Curran 2012 2 The Jesuits received land patents from Lord Baltimore in 1636, were gifted land in some Catholic Marylanders' wills, and purchased some land on their own, eventually becoming substantial landowners in the colony.Curran 2012 31–32 As the sole ministers of Catholicism in Maryland at the time, the Jesuit estates became the centers of Catholicism. From these estates, the Jesuits traveled the countryside on horseback, administering the sacraments and catechizing the Catholic laity. They also established schools on their lands.Curran 2012 3 Much of this land was put to use as plantations, the revenue from which financed the Jesuits' ministries. 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. Many of these slaves were gifted to the Jesuits, while others were purchased. 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. 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.Curran 2012 32The Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen was created in 1792 to preserve the property of the suppressed Jesuit order. The suppressed Jesuits did not want their property to be seized by the state, by the Propaganda Fide (which, since 1776, had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the United States as a mission church), or by the Archbishop of Baltimore (whom the Propaganda Fide had ordered to take possession of all Jesuit property). The Jesuits hoped the Society of Jesus would eventually be restored and the corporation's property transferred to the Jesuit superior in America. Even after the Jesuits were restored in the United States and worldwide, the Corporation continued to exist and even expanded for some time, causing friction among those who renewed their Jesuit vows and those who did not.Curran 2012 15–16 Several of the Jesuits' slaves unsuccessfully attempted to sue for their freedom in the courts in the 1790s. By 1824, the Jesuit plantations totaled more than 12000 acre hectare in the State of Maryland, and 1700 acre hectare in eastern Pennsylvania.Curran 2012 31 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.Jacobe Stephanie A. T. February 2, 2021 Where were the Jesuit plantations in Maryland? Catholic Standard https://cathstan.org/posts/where-were-the-jesuit-plantations-in-maryland live November 20, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211120054019/https://cathstan.org/posts/where-were-the-jesuit-plantations-in-maryland November 20, 2021 The main crops grown were tobacco and corn. Due to these extensive landholdings, the Propaganda Fide in Rome had come to view the American Jesuits negatively, believing they lived lavishly like manorial lords. In reality, by the early 19th century, the Jesuit plantations were in such a state of mismanagement that in 1820, the Jesuit Superior General in Rome, Tadeusz Brzozowski, sent Irish Jesuit Peter Kenney as a canonical visitor to review the operations of the Maryland Mission.Watkins Anna http://archive.org/details/the-jesuits-and-their-slaves-in-maryland-and-the-critique-of-brother-joseph-mobb " The Jesuits And Their Slaves In Maryland And The Critique Of Brother Joseph Mobberly SJ" 2012 The Catholic Historical Society of Washington 6 In addition to becoming physically dilapidated, all but one of the plantations had fallen into debt.Curran 2012 34 On some plantations, the majority of slaves did not work because they were too young or old. The condition of slaves on the plantations varied over time, as did the condition of the Jesuits living with them. Kenney found the slaves facing arbitrary discipline, a meager diet, pastoral neglect, and engaging in vice. By the 1830s, their material and religious conditions had improved considerably.Curran 2012 35–36 One of the Maryland Jesuits' institutions, Georgetown College (later known as Georgetown University), also rented slaves. The school owned a small number of slaves in its early decades,Mendoza 2020 57 but its main relationship with slavery was the leasing of slaves to work on campus,Mendoza 2020 64 a practice that continued past the 1838 slave sale. Debate over the slavery question thumb|upright=1.4|The Jesuits arguing in favor of a sale wanted to focus on their urban missions, including Georgetown College.|alt=Etching of Georgetown University campus in the mid-19th century Beginning in 1800, there were instances of the Jesuit plantation managers freeing individual slaves or permitting slaves to purchase their freedom.Curran 2012 39 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,Curran 2012 38 though in 1820, they decided against universal manumission. In 1830, the new Superior General, Jan Roothaan, returned Kenney to the United States, specifically to address the question of whether the Jesuits should divest themselves of their rural plantations altogether, which by this time had almost completely paid down their debts.Curran 2012 40 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.Curran 2012 41 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.Curran 2012 42 Mulledy and McSherry became increasingly vocal in their opposition to Jesuit slave ownership. 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. The two feared that because the public would not accept additional manumitted blacks, the Jesuits would be forced to sell their slaves en masse.Curran 2012 43 The Maryland Jesuits, having been elevated from a mission to the status of a province in 1833, held their first provincial congregation in 1835, where they considered again what to do with their plantations. 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.Curran 2012 43–45 At the congregation, the senior Jesuits in Maryland voted six to four to proceed with a sale of the slaves,Judge 1959 397 and Dubuisson submitted to the Superior General a summary of the moral and financial arguments on either side of the debate.Judge 1959 395–397 Meanwhile, in order to fund the province's operations, McSherry, as the first provincial superior of the Maryland Province, began selling small groups of slaves to planters in Louisiana in 1835, arguing that it was not possible to sell the slaves to local planters and that the buyers had assured him that they would not mistreat the slaves and would permit them to practice their Catholic faith.Curran 2012 46 The sale 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,Curran 2012 46–47 rather than to pay down debts.Rothman 2017 18 McSherry delayed selling the slaves because their market value had greatly diminished as a result of the Panic of 1837, and because he was searching for a buyer who would agree to these conditions. In October of that year, Mulledy succeeded McSherry, who was dying, as provincial superior.Curran 2012 47 Mulledy quickly made arrangements to carry out the sale. 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. 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. center 1000 File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p1.jpg Page number one File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p2.jpg Page number two File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p3.jpg Page number three File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p4.jpg Page number four File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p5.jpg Page number five File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p6.jpg Page number six File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p7.jpg Page number seven File-Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part. 19th June 1838 p8.jpg Page number eight center Articles of agreement for the 1838 sale Terms of the agreement On June 19, 1838, Mulledy, Johnson, and Batey signed articles of agreement formalizing the sale. Johnson and Batey agreed to pay $115,000, equivalent to $US-GDP 115000 1838 in US-GDP,US-GDP over the course of ten years plus six percent annual interest. In exchange, they would receive 272 slaves from the four Jesuit plantations in southern Maryland, constituting nearly all of the slaves owned by the Maryland Jesuits.Rothman 2020 8 Johnson and Batey were to be held jointly and severally liable and each additionally identified a responsible party as a guarantor. The slaves were also identified as collateral in the event that Johnson, Batey, and their guarantors defaulted on their payments.Rothman 2017 21 thumb|First page of the manifest of slaves carried aboard the Katherine Jackson to Louisiana|alt=Yellow sheet of paper with handwritten list The articles of agreement listed each of the slaves being sold by name. More than half were younger than 20, and nearly a third were not yet 10 years old. The agreement provided that 51 slaves would be sent to the port of Alexandria, Virginia, in order to be shipped to Louisiana. Upon receipt of these 51, Johnson and Batey were to pay the first $25,000. The first payment on the remaining $90,000 would become due after five years. 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, Ascension Plantation (later known as Chatham Plantation) in Ascension Parish and another in Maringouin in Iberville Parish.The Fate and Legacy of the GU272 https://gu272.americanancestors.org/history/fate-and-legacy-of-GU272 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20210621112244/https://gu272.americanancestors.org/history/fate-and-legacy-of-GU272 June 21, 2021 November 21, 2021 AmericanAncestors.org New England Historic Genealogical Society Delivery of the slaves 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. When Mulledy returned in November to gather the rest of the slaves, the plantation managers had their slaves flee and hide. The slaves Mulledy gathered were sent on the three-week voyage aboard the Katherine Jackson, which departed Alexandria on November 13 and arrived in New Orleans on December 6. 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.Curran 2012 48 Not all of the 272 slaves intended to be sold to Louisiana met that fate.McCoy Terrence April 28, 2018 They thought Georgetown University's missing slaves were 'lost.' The truth was closer to home than anyone knew. The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/they-thought-georgetowns-missing-slaves-were-lost-the-truth-was-closer-to-home-than-anyone-knew/2018/04/28/074beb66-3e65-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html live January 23, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20201124104602/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/they-thought-georgetowns-missing-slaves-were-lost-the-truth-was-closer-to-home-than-anyone-knew/2018/04/28/074beb66-3e65-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html November 24, 2020 In total, only 206 are known to have been transported to Louisiana. Several substitutions were made to the initial list of those to be sold, and 91 of those initially listed remained in Maryland.The Lost Jesuit Slaves of Maryland 2018 9The 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. Total There are several reasons many slaves were left behind. The Jesuits decided that the elderly would not be sold south and instead would be permitted to remain in Maryland. 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. Johnson allowed these slaves to remain in Maryland because he intended to return and try to buy their spouses as well. Some of the initial 272 slaves who were not delivered to Johnson were replaced with substitutes.The Lost Jesuit Slaves of Maryland 2018 8 An unknown number of slaves may also have run away and escaped transportation.The Lost Jesuit Slaves of Maryland 2018 10, 53–55 Aftermath Scandal and reproach thumb|Thomas F. Mulledy was rebuked by many of his fellow Jesuits following the sale.|alt=Black and white portrait of Thomas Mulledy Almost immediately, the sale, which was one of the largest slave sales in the history of the United States, became a scandal among American Catholics.Curran 2012 49 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.Kuzniewski 1999 29 Benedict Fenwick, a Jesuit and the Bishop of Boston, privately lamented the fate of the slaves and considered the sale an extreme measure. Dubuisson described how the public reputation of the Jesuits in Washington and Virginia declined as a result of the sale. Other Jesuits voiced their anger to the Archbishop of Baltimore, Samuel Eccleston, who conveyed this to Roothaan. During the controversy, Mulledy fell into alcoholism.Kuzniewski 1999 40 Soon after the sale, Roothaan decided that Mulledy should be removed as provincial superior.Curran 2012 50 Roothaan was particularly concerned because it had become clear that, contrary to his order, families had been separated by the slaves' new owners. 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.Swarns Rachel L. Rachel L. Swarns April 16, 2016 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html live November 22, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211118191823/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html November 18, 2021 While McSherry initially persuaded Roothaan to forgo removing Mulledy, in August 1839, Roothaan resolved that Mulledy must be removed to quell the ongoing scandal. He demanded that Mulledy travel to Rome to answer the charges of disobeying orders and promoting scandal. 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. Before Roothaan's order reached Mulledy, Mulledy had already accepted the advice of McSherry and Eccleston in June 1839 to resign and go to Rome to defend himself before Roothaan. As censure for the scandal,Holy Cross: 1843–1899 https://www.holycross.edu/175th-anniversary/historical-timeline-holy-cross/1843-1899 live https://web.archive.org/web/20181202191051/https://www.holycross.edu/175th-anniversary/historical-timeline-holy-cross/1843-1899 December 2, 2018 December 2, 2018 College of the Holy Cross Roothaan ordered Mulledy to remain in Europe, and Mulledy lived in exile in the Savoyard city of Nice until 1843. Financial outcome 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. Of the sum, $8,000 was used to satisfy a financial obligation that, following a long-running and contentious dispute, Pope Pius VII had previously determined the Maryland Jesuits owed to Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal of Baltimore and his successors.Curran 2012 17–20 The remaining $17,000, equivalent to approximately $US-GDP 17000 1838 -4 in US-GDP,US-GDP was used to offset part of Georgetown College's $30,000 of debt that had accrued during the construction of buildings during Mulledy's prior presidency of the college. However, the remainder of the money received did go to funding Jesuit formation. Johnson was unable to pay according to the schedule of the agreement. As a result, he had to sell his property in the 1840s and renegotiate the terms of his payment. 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.Rothman 2017 22 The Jesuits never received the total $115,000 that was owed under the agreement.What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross 2016 24 thumb|Frank Campbell (top) was sold by the Jesuits.Mauro Ellen April 7, 2018 Students of history https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/black-slavery-us-georgetown-university/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20221119112035/https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/black-slavery-us-georgetown-university/ November 19, 2022 June 18, 2023 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|alt=Photograph of man standing outdoors with two girls Subsequent fate of the slaves Before the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, many slaves sold by the Jesuits changed ownership several times. 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.Historical Timeline: Events Affecting the GU272 from the 1838 Sale to the Present https://gu272.americanancestors.org/historical-timeline live https://web.archive.org/web/20220323221057/https://gu272.americanancestors.org/historical-timeline March 23, 2022 March 23, 2022 AmericanAncestors.org New England Historic Genealogical SocietyBill of Sale from the Heirs of Jesse Batey to Washington Barrow, January 18, 1853 http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/10 live https://web.archive.org/web/20200714231409/http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/10 July 14, 2020 November 21, 2021 Georgetown Slavery Archive In 1856, Washington Barrow sold the slaves he purchased from Batey to William Patrick and Joseph B. Woolfolk of Iberville Parish.Bill of Sale for Land and People from Washington Barrow to William Patrick and Joseph B. Woolfolk, February 4, 1856 http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/16 live https://web.archive.org/web/20180324052029/http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/16 March 24, 2018 November 21, 2021 Georgetown Slavery Archive February 4, 1856 Patrick and Woolfolk's slaves were then sold in July 1859 to Emily Sparks, the widow of Austin Woolfolk.Bill of Sale for Land and 138 People from William Patrick and Joseph Woolfolk to Emily Sparks, Widow of Austin Woolfolk, July 16, 1859 http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/17 live https://web.archive.org/web/20180324060730/http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/17 March 24, 2018 November 21, 2021 Georgetown Slavery Archive July 16, 1859 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. Key then transferred this property to John R. Thompson. 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.Henry Johnson's Sales of Enslaved Persons, 1844–1851 http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/73 live https://web.archive.org/web/20181202155035/http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/73 December 2, 2018 November 21, 2021 Georgetown Slavery Archive Legacy Historiography While the 1838 slave sale gave rise to scandal at the time, the event eventually faded out of public awareness. However, the history of the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership was never secret. It is one of the most well-documented slave sales of its era.Foley 2017 130 There was periodic and sometimes extensive coverage of both the sale and the Jesuits' slave ownership in various literature. 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 1970s saw an increase in public scholarship on the Maryland Jesuits' slave ownership.Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation 2016 11 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.Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation 2016 12 In 1981, historian Robert Emmett Curran presented comprehensive research into the Maryland Jesuits' participation in slavery at academic conferences, and published this research in 1983. Curran also published Georgetown University's official bicentennial history in 1993, in which he wrote about the university's and the Jesuits' relationship with slavery.Curran 1993 119–121 Other historians covered the subject in literature published between the 1980s and 2000s. 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. Return to public awareness thumb|Mulledy Hall, now Isaac Hawkins Hall, at Georgetown in 1898|alt=Black and white photograph of Mulledy Hall The 1838 slave sale returned to the public's awareness in the mid-2010s. 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, Wolfington Hall, in 2003.Eagan Owen March 3, 2015 Reviving History With New Academy https://thehoya.com/news/reviving-history-new-academy/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20240804144148/https://thehoya.com/news/reviving-history-new-academy/ August 4, 2024 August 4, 2024 The Hoya After the Jesuits vacated the buildings, Ryan and Mulledy Halls lay vacant, while Gervase Hall was put to other use.October 1, 2013 University Requests Change in Use for Ryan Hall and Mulledy Hall https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/masterplanning/2013/10/01/university-requests-change-in-use-for-ryan-hall-and-mulledy-hall/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20210410211128/https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/masterplanning/2013/10/01/university-requests-change-in-use-for-ryan-hall-and-mulledy-hall/ April 10, 2021 November 24, 2021 Georgetown University In 2014, renovation began on Ryan and Mulledy Halls to convert them into a student residence.April 21, 2014 Renovation of Former Jesuit Residence Beginning May 19 https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/masterplanning/2014/04/21/renovation-of-former-jesuit-residence-beginning-may-19/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211124035518/https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/masterplanning/2014/04/21/renovation-of-former-jesuit-residence-beginning-may-19/ November 24, 2021 November 24, 2021 Georgetown University 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.DeGioia John J. John J. DeGioia August 24, 2015 A Message Regarding Mulledy Hall https://president.georgetown.edu/mulledy-hall/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211124040511/https://president.georgetown.edu/mulledy-hall/ November 24, 2021 November 24, 2021 Georgetown University Despite the decades of scholarship on the subject, this revelation came as a surprise to many Georgetown University members,Quallen Matthew September 11, 2015 Slavery's Remnants, Buried and Overlooked The Hoya https://thehoya.com/slaverys-remnants-buried-and-overlooked/ live November 24, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210226180525/https://thehoya.com/slaverys-remnants-buried-and-overlooked/ February 26, 2021 and some criticized the retention of Mulledy's name on the building. Between 2014 and 2015, several articles in the school newspaper, The Hoya, also brought the university's relationship with slavery and the slave sale to public attention.Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation 2016 13 thumb|upright=0.9|left|Anne Marie Becraft Hall, known until 2015 as McSherry Hall|alt=Photograph of McSherry Hall partially covered in ivy Renaming halls 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.DeGioia John J. John J. DeGioia September 24, 2015 Announcing the Working Group on Slavery, Memory & Reconciliation https://president.georgetown.edu/messages/slavery-memory-reconciliation-working-group/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20210218223838/https://president.georgetown.edu/messages/slavery-memory-reconciliation-working-group/ February 18, 2021 November 24, 2021 Georgetown University In November of that year, following a student-led protest and sit-in, the working group recommended that the university temporarily rename Mulledy Hall (which opened during Mulledy's presidency in 1833)January 15, 2004 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 https://www.library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/concrete-expressions-georgetowns-jesuit-heritage-photographic-sampler-campus-buildings-an live https://web.archive.org/web/20210219190638/https://www.library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/concrete-expressions-georgetowns-jesuit-heritage-photographic-sampler-campus-buildings-an February 19, 2021 November 28, 2021 Georgetown University Library to Freedom Hall, and McSherry Hall (which opened in 1792 and housed a meditation center)O'Neill Smith 2020 26 to Remembrance Hall. 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. This coincided with a protest by a group of students against keeping Mulledy's and McSherry's names on the buildings the day before.Shaver Katherine November 15, 2015 Georgetown University to rename two buildings that reflect school's ties to slavery The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/georgetown-university-to-rename-two-buildings-that-reflect-schools-ties-to-slavery/2015/11/15/e36edd32-8bb7-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html live November 24, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211124051201/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/georgetown-university-to-rename-two-buildings-that-reflect-schools-ties-to-slavery/2015/11/15/e36edd32-8bb7-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html November 24, 2021Hung Toby Puri Ashwin November 17, 2015 Heeding Demands, University Renames Buildings The Hoya https://thehoya.com/heeding-demands-university-renames-buildings/ live November 24, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210822133525/https://thehoya.com/heeding-demands-university-renames-buildings/ August 22, 2021 In 2016, The New York Times published an article that brought the history of the Jesuits' and university's relationship with slavery to national attention.Rothman 2020 3 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.What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross 2016 1, 20 Mulledy Hall, a student dormitory that opened in 1966,September 30, 2020 Mulledy Name To Be Removed From Brooks–Mulledy Hall https://news.holycross.edu/blog/2020/09/30/mulledy-name-to-be-removed-from-brooks-mulledy-hall/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20201001165508/https://news.holycross.edu/blog/2020/09/30/mulledy-name-to-be-removed-from-brooks-mulledy-hall/ October 1, 2020 November 27, 2021 College of the Holy Cross was renamed as Brooks–Mulledy Hall in 2016, adding the name of a later president, John E. Brooks, who worked to racially integrate the college.Boroughs Philip L. Philip Boroughs June 16, 2016 President's Response to Report of the Mulledy/Healy Legacy Committee https://news.holycross.edu/blog/2016/06/16/presidents-response-to-report-of-the-mulledyhealy-legacy-committee/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20160617143637/https://news.holycross.edu/blog/2016/06/16/presidents-response-to-report-of-the-mulledyhealy-legacy-committee/ June 17, 2016 November 27, 2021 College of the Holy Cross In 2020, the college removed Mulledy's name. 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.Duster Chandelis R. Kwak Bethia April 19, 2017 Georgetown Apologizes, Renames Halls After Slaves NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/georgetown-apologizes-renames-halls-after-slaves-n747976 live November 27, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20201112025506/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/georgetown-apologizes-renames-halls-after-slaves-n747976 November 12, 2020 The university also gave permanent names to the two buildings. Freedom Hall became Isaac Hawkins Hall, after the first slave listed on the articles of agreement for the 1838 sale. Remembrance Hall became Anne Marie Becraft Hall, after a free black woman who founded a school for black girls in the Georgetown neighborhood and later joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence.April 18, 2017 Georgetown Apologizes for 1838 Sale of More Than 270 Enslaved, Dedicates Buildings https://www.georgetown.edu/news/georgetown-apologizes-for-1838-sale-of-272-slaves-dedicates-buildings/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20211103214939/https://www.georgetown.edu/news/georgetown-apologizes-for-1838-sale-of-272-slaves-dedicates-buildings/ November 3, 2021 November 27, 2021 Georgetown University Additional developments Georgetown University also extended to descendants of slaves who the Jesuits owned or whose labor benefitted the university the same preferential legacy status in university admission given to children of Georgetown alumni. 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.Swarns Rachel L. Rachel L. Swarns September 1, 2016 Georgetown University Plans Steps to Atone for Slave Past The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/us/slaves-georgetown-university.html live November 27, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211001221920/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/us/slaves-georgetown-university.html October 1, 2021 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.Hawkins Lee Belkin Douglas March 25, 2022 For Georgetown, Jesuits and Slavery Descendants, Bid for Racial Healing Sours Over Reparations The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-georgetown-jesuits-and-slavery-descendants-bid-for-racial-healing-sours-over-reparations-11648232089 live March 26, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220325233746/https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-georgetown-jesuits-and-slavery-descendants-bid-for-racial-healing-sours-over-reparations-11648232089 March 25, 2022 In 2019, undergraduate students at Georgetown voted in a non-binding referendum to impose a symbolic reparations fee of $27.20 per student.Hassan Adeel April 12, 2019 Georgetown Students Agree to Create Reparations Fund The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/us/georgetown-reparations.html live November 27, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210726113803/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/us/georgetown-reparations.html July 26, 2021 The university instead decided to raise $400,000 per year in voluntary donations for the benefit of descendants. 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.Swarns Rachel L. Rachel L. Swarns March 15, 2021 Catholic Order Pledges $100 Million to Atone for Slave Labor and Sales The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/15/us/jesuits-georgetown-reparations-slavery.html live November 27, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211121060835/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/15/us/jesuits-georgetown-reparations-slavery.html November 21, 2021 Georgetown also donated $1million to the foundation and another $400,000 to create a charitable fund to pay for healthcare and education in Maringouin, Louisiana. See also Great Slave Auction Slavery at American colleges and universities History of Georgetown University Domestic slave trade History of slavery in Louisiana Catholic Church and slavery Notes References Citations Sources 30em yes Curran Robert Emmett The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889 https://books.google.com/books?id=wTnIE1HixpYC Georgetown University Press 1993 978-0-87840-485-8 1 Washington, D.C. Google Books Curran Robert Emmett Shaping American Catholicism: Maryland and New York, 1805–1915 Catholic University of America Press 2012 978-0-8132-1967-7 Washington, D.C. 10.2307/j.ctt284vw2 j.ctt284vw2 Foley Thomas 2017 Saving Souls and Selling Them: Jesuit Slaveholding and the Georgetown Slavery Archive https://epublications.regis.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=jhe live Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal 6 1 130–132 https://web.archive.org/web/20210219031011/https://epublications.regis.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=jhe February 19, 2021 November 27, 2021 Judge Robert K. November 1, 1959 Foundation and First Administration of the Maryland Province, Part I: Background http://jesuitarchives.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/woodstock-088.pdf live Woodstock Letters 88 4 376–406 https://web.archive.org/web/20200310151936/http://jesuitarchives.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/woodstock-088.pdf March 10, 2020 November 21, 2021 Jesuit Archives https://books.google.com/books?id=C04IVksMcN0C&pg=PA40 Thy Honored Name: A History of the College of the Holy Cross, 1843–1994 Kuzniewski Anthony J. Catholic University of America Press 1999 978-0-81320-911-1 Washington, D.C. Google Books Mendoza Elsa Barraza 2020 Catholic Slaveowners and the Development of Georgetown University's Slave Hiring System, 1792–1862 Journal of Jesuit Studies 8 1 56–80 10.1163/22141332-0801P004 230590560 Brill free O'Neill Paul R. https://books.google.com/books?id=sdrQDwAAQBAJ Georgetown University Smith Bennie L. Arcadia Publishing 2020 978-1-4671-0466-1 The Campus History Series Charleston, South Carolina Google Books https://www.americamagazine.org/sites/default/files/attachments/working_group_on_slavery_memory_and_reconciliation_final_report.pdf Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation to the President of Georgetown University June 3, 2016 Georgetown University November 22, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210225104029/https://www.americamagazine.org/sites/default/files/attachments/working_group_on_slavery_memory_and_reconciliation_final_report.pdf February 25, 2021 live Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation 2016 Rothman Adam Fall 2017 Georgetown University and the Business of Slavery Washington History 29 2 18–22 90015020 Rothman Adam 2020 The Jesuits and Slavery Journal of Jesuit Studies 8 1 1–10 10.1163/22141332-0801P001 230540515 free https://www.georgetownmemoryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Research-Memo-Lost-Jesuit-Slaves.pdf The Lost Jesuit Slaves of Maryland: Searching for 91 people left behind in 1838 April 30, 2018 Georgetown Memory Project February 14, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20211127042819/https://www.georgetownmemoryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Research-Memo-Lost-Jesuit-Slaves.pdf November 27, 2021 live The Lost Jesuit Slaves of Maryland 2018 https://www.holycross.edu/sites/default/files/files/mulledy-healy/mulledycommitteereportfinal.pdf What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross March 18, 2016 College of the Holy Cross November 21, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20201020234423/https://www.holycross.edu/sites/default/files/files/mulledy-healy/mulledycommitteereportfinal.pdf October 20, 2020 live What We Know: Report to the President of The College of The Holy Cross 2016 Further reading Curran Robert Emmett Catholics in the Old South: Essays on Church and Culture Mercer University Press 1983 978-0-86554-080-4 Wakelyn Jon L. Macon, Georgia 125–147 'Splendid Poverty:' Jesuit Slave Holdings in Maryland, 1805–1838 Miller Randall M. none Finn Peter C. The Slaves of the Jesuits in Maryland 1974 M.A. https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1044615 https://web.archive.org/web/20180426070339/https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1044615 April 26, 2018 live none Murphy Thomas https://books.google.com/books?id=osTPw7783nYC Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1717–1838 Routledge 2001 0-8153-4052-4 Hodges Graham Russell Studies in African American History and Culture New York Google Books none https://books.google.com/books?id=SB4vEAAAQBAJ Facing Georgetown's History: A Reader on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Georgetown University Press 2021 978-1-64712-096-2 Rothman Adam Washington, D.C. Mendoza Elsa Barraza Google Books none Swarns Rachel L. The 272: the Families Who were Enslaved and Sold to Build The American Catholic Church Random House 2023 978-0-399-59086-3 none External links Georgetown Slavery Archive Jesuit Plantation Project Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project Georgetown Memory Project GU272 Memory Project GU272 Descendants Association Video of Isaac Hawkins Hall dedication ceremony from C-SPAN collapsed yes Articles of agreement between Thomas F. Mulledy, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, of one part, and Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson, of the State of Louisiana, of the other part y Category:1838 Jesuit slave sale articles of agreement History United States Maryland Louisiana Catholicism Education Category:June 1838 Category:1838 in Maryland Category:1838 in Louisiana Category:1838 in Washington, D.C. Category:Slave trade in the United States Category:History of slavery in Louisiana Category:History of slavery in Maryland Category:History of slavery in the District of Columbia Category:History of slavery in Virginia Category:Iberville Parish, Louisiana Category:Ascension Parish, Louisiana Category:Georgetown University Category:History of colleges and universities in Washington, D.C. Category:African-American Catholicism Category:Catholicism and slavery Category:Society of Jesus in Maryland Category:Society of Jesus in Louisiana Category:Society of Jesus in Washington, D.C.