Br. Mobberly recounts the whipping of Sucky, an enslaved woman at St. Inigoes, The Mobberly Diaries, Part I, 1820

Dublin Core

Title

Br. Mobberly recounts the whipping of Sucky, an enslaved woman at St. Inigoes, The Mobberly Diaries, Part I, 1820

Subject

Slaves-Abuse of, Women Slaves, Catholic Church-Clergy-Biography

Description

In a diary entry from 1820, Br. Joseph Mobberly offers an account of the whipping of Sucky, an enslaved woman who was punished as a child because she witnessed the self-flagellation of an unnamed priest from St. Inigo's Mission.

For another recollection of this event and additional details of those involved, see GSA94

Creator

Joseph P. Mobberly, SJ Papers

Source

"Situation of St. Inigo's Farm House," Diary Part I, Box I, Folder I, p. 21-22, Joseph P. Mobberly, SJ Papers, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University

The Joseph P. Mobberly Papers have been digitized in their entirity by Georgetown Univeristy Library. To browse the collection visit Digital Georgetown.

Publisher

Georgetown Slavery Archive

The Mobberly Diaries were previously hosted by the Jesuit Plantation Project.

Date

1820

Contributor

Adam Rothman, Elsa Barraza Mendoza , Jesuit Plantation Project

Rights

Georgetown University Library

Relation

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

Manuscript

Identifier

GSA136

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

[Page 21]

The cook, who was called Granny Sucky, & who according to the family records found in the house, was 96 years of age when she died, (tho' she often said she was more than 100) told me that she had had 23 masters, and that she never had had a bad one. he observed that she never had been whipped but once, the occasion of which, was this - One of her masters (the name I do not recollect) was accustomed to retire to an old neglected barn for the purposes of taking the discipline. This, it seems, after some time, was discovered and whispered among the blacks. Sucky was then a girl - She was resolved to see if this statement was true, and therefore followed her master at a distance. She arrived in good time, & peeping through a crevice, found that he had just bared his shoulders & begun his pious work. She immediately screamed aloud, & running to the barn door, begged her

[Page 22]

good master not to be so cruel to himself. She said that she loved her master most cordially, but that on this occasion, he gave her so sound a thrashing, that she was determined never to care much about his self-cruelties in future.

Original Format

Manuscript

Files

Citation

Joseph P. Mobberly, SJ Papers, “Br. Mobberly recounts the whipping of Sucky, an enslaved woman at St. Inigoes, The Mobberly Diaries, Part I, 1820,” Georgetown Slavery Archive, accessed October 3, 2024, http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/148.

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