Black Lives history Timeline: 1838 - Jesuit Sale of Slaves

1838: Jesuits Sell Slaves to Fund Georgetown University

In 1838, the Jesuits were struggling with their college, Georgetown University, and chose to sell off a group of men, women, and children that the Jesuits owned. 272 Black people were sold by them to fund their college. Despite the buyers agreeing not to separate any families from this group, they were treated the same as any other slave. Many of these slaves went on to work in Thibodaux sugar plantations. The same plantations that slaughtered former slaves who were striking for their rights in 1887. The facts surrounding the sale were not revealed until an article discussing repayment of descendants of slaves was published by the New York Times in 2016. In 2019, the student body of Georgetown University voted by a two-thirds majority that the descendants of these slaves be allowed tuition to the university, should they want it.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: 1838 Jesuit Slave Sale
• CNN: In emotional service, Jesuits and Georgetown repent for slave trading
• About 500 descendants of slaves sold by Jesuit priests gather for unique reunion in Iberville Parish
• Stories, tears flow freely for descendants of slaves Jesuits owned, sold
• Descendants of slaves sold by Jesuits urge Georgetown: ‘Make it right’
• A New Path to Atonement
• Life and Labor Under Slavery: the Jesuit Plantation Project
• Slavery, History, Memory and Reconciliation Project
• A Community Betrayed: The Fate and Legacy of the GU272
• Website documents histories of Georgetown slaves
• History of slaves sold for Georgetown detailed in new genealogical website

I learned about this moment of US history when I watched the episode of Finding Your Roots with S Epatha Merkerson. I highly recommend checking out her episode, as it covers a lot of what those slaves actually went through, and how they were treated by the Jesuits even before they were sold. Anyone thinking this was just something people did at the time, and that the Jesuits shouldn't be blamed for it, I highly recommend you read some of the accounts. Imagine being treated by people of the cloth that way? And imagine being sold and then separated from your family because white people saw you as an animal to be used for whatever needs you might have. It isn't right now, and it wasn't right then. And they knew it. They just didn't care.