Browse Items (59 total)

In this letter to the Superior General, Fr. Havermans laments the "grim and displeasing" sale of the Jesuits' slaves. In a postscript dated November 12, he reports the anguish expressed by enslaved people at Newtown as they were being gathered for…

In November 1838, as the remaining members of the Maryland Jesuit slave community were being shipped to Louisiana, Fr. Grivel wrote a letter to Fr. Lancaster with a glimpse of the proceedings at White Marsh.

Among other things, Fr. Grivel…

Three weeks before purchasing enslaved people from the Maryland Jesuits, Jesse Batey posted this advertisement in the Washington Globe newspaper offering his plantation on Bayou Maringouin in Louisiana for sale in exchange for "negroes", or offering…

Fr. Grivel reports from Georgetown on the aftermath of the sale of the Maryland Jesuits' human property. He notes that the Jesuits tried to keep husbands and wives together, but that some children were sent to Louisiana without their mothers. Some…

Henry Johnson reports to Rev. McSherry SJ that the enslaved people transported to Louisiana were "healthy and well pleased with their situation." Compare withGSA88:"A cruel overseer": Letter from Fr. Grivel to Fr. Lancaster, May 30, 1840

In this letter to another Jesuit priest in June 1838, Fr. Mulledy, SJ discussed his negotiations with potential buyers over the price of the people that the Maryland Jesuits intended to sell. He reports that he had been having trouble selling them…

Fr. Stephen Dubuisson S.J. records the arguments for and against the people enslaved by the Maryland Province.

Simple versions of the transcription and translation are included below. Annotated versions may be downloaded in PDF format.

In this letter, Fr. Jan Philip Roothaan, the superior general of the Society of Jesus, approves of the sale of the people enslaved by the Maryland Province but stipulates several conditions that must be met, including assuring that people sold could…

In this undated bill of sale, Rev. Thomas Mulledy SJ sells eleven men and women to Henry Johnson. This sale must have taken place some time after November 10, 1838. Ten of the people listed in this bill of sale are recorded in the 1838 census as…

This is the original list of people from the Jesuit plantations compiled in preparation for the sale in 1838. It lists the slaves by name according to plantation where they lived, identifies family groups, and records which ship (1, 2, or 3) they…