"They all have heard:" Fr. Havermans writes to Fr. Fenwick on the sale of slaves from Newtown, July 17, 1832

"They all have heard:" Fr. Havermans writes to Fr. Fenwick on the sale of slaves from Newtown, July 17, 1832

Slave labor; Slave trade; Master and Servant; Jesuits--History--19th century; Catholic Church-Clergy-Correspondence

Fr. Havermans shares with Fr. Fenwick his worry that the slaves from Newtown are aware "that they are sold or about to be sold, and that they are to be carried out of the state."

Maryland Province Archives

Georgetown Slavery Archive

1832-07-17

Tom Foley, Elsa Barraza Mendoza. Transcribed by Alison Baird, Alexis Jones, and Elizabeth Zrike (AMST272 Spring 2018).

Maryland Province, Society of Jesus

PDF

English

Manuscript

GSA222

Father Fenwick

Rev^d  &dear Father! P.C.

 The year of your confinement and troublesome occupations, indolent to your office in the college, is again at an end and O! how soon has it elapsed! It seems to me but yesterday that we here were enjoying your charming company and delightful songs. We are counting now again the days when we shall be again delighted by a similar visitation. And I hope we shall now be better calculated than last year, to make you spend here an agreeable relaxation of which you must certainly stand in need. I expect also that you will find some improvements since you came here.  The crop looks more flourishing and abundant than last year, and the place has obtained, at least in my opinion, a much better aspect, of

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this however you will be the judge yourself. And when you will see our once so humble church, you will be convinced of the great change a little repair can make when judiciously applied. There is only one thing that makes me here gloomy, and that is the prudent situation of our servants. They all have heard that they are sold or about to be sold, and that they are to be carried out of the state. This has put a mass unpleasant feeling on them. They seem however still to be suspense, especially as they can get no information from me. I hope they will continue to work, for otherwise, I do not know what to do.

I have been thinking of coming up to the college at the exhibition, as I never saw that yet, and have a great anxiety of witnessing your solemnity on that day; but I do not know whether the interest of the place

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will permit it or whether it will be the wish of Father Provincial. However, by next Sunday I shall see if I can be spared. For I have a wish to see Father Superior to consult him about the future disposition and management of the place, which in my opinion is of great importance. I know that I could support it not altogether, at least in a great measure. The Noviceship, if the place were again left to my discretion, after all the repairs and firments shall have been made.

 For I am sanguine, that I could clear, from 2000 to 2500$ every year after this. And if the place be rented out it will not rent for more than six or seven hundred dollars, and in that case, how will the souls be supported? The congregation will not do it, even if the news of the farm were given to the support of the house, it would not be to much.-  Dear Father you will please to try to bring my dear friend, Brother Blox with you. Try by all means to do it if I can yet get up. I shall also do my best remember me in your H.H. say in prayer my respects to Fathers Bros: McSherry etc. Totus tuus in corda Jesu

Peter Havermans ; S.J.

 

 

[Envelope]
Leonardtown Md

17 July

 

Illegible blot

Thobias Fenwick
Charge for George Fenwick
Georgetown Carried 

Manuscript