These two documents from 1829 relate to the death of Dick, a man enslaved on Georgetown's campus. On September 11, 1829 an entry in the campus' daily House Diary records that Father Van Lommel administered the Last Sacraments of the Church to Dick.…
On January 1, 1827 a payment of $2.50 was recorded in the college's cash book to "Negro Clem to pay doctors fees." Clem was hired out by the college for a number of years. See GSA168.Other items of note on this page include payments to "Old" Dick and…
This accounting ledger entry shows a series of construction costs, including a payment for enslaved carpenters. Their owner Mr.Herard received $50.25 from Georgetown University for the work of his enslaved men. These costs are for the expansion of…
This map was created by Father James Curley, S.J. circa 1854. Father Curley was a Professor of Physics, Mathematics, and Botany at Georgetown and was instrumental in the building of the campus Observatory. This map does not show a separate quarters…
Playbill for a blackface minstrel show at Georgetown dated December 17, 1861.By December 1861, the word "contraband" had come to refer to enslaved people who had escaped to the Union Army.For more information on the Georgetown "Contrabands", see…
This remarkable letter from 1820 narrates the case of Becca, an enslaved woman who approached Fr. John Baptist Cary at Georgetown College after fleeing from her owner, a man who is described in the letter as "very hard & has no religion at all."…
This cash book account records a payment of $2.19 from Fr. Neale, SJ the manager of St. Thomas' Manor, to Georgetown College for the "boots of his servant."
This is a record of the 1808 sale of an unnamed enslaved woman as preserved in Georgetown's financial ledgers. Rev. Francis Neale, who would become president of the College the following year, purchased the woman from St. Inigoes for $240 "for the…