Browse Items (458 total)

A register of baptisms, marriages, and burials at St. Thomas for 1827-1832, mostly involving enslaved people. Along with a digitized edition of the register, we have compiled spreadsheets with the data contained in the register.

In 1847, Fr. Nicholas Steinbacher, the Superior at Newtown Plantation hired Robert Thomas, an enslaved man property of Mary J. Neale. The yearly hire of Robert cost the Jesuit priest 20 dollars.

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 1849, Fr. Thomas Lilly, the Superior at St. Inigoes plantation, paid Enoch Neale for the hire of three enslaved men: Lewis, William, and Robert. He also hired an unspecified number of enslaved men for wood cutting.

In 1843, Fr. Vespre instructed Fr. Carbury to pay Mrs. Jane Smith for the hire of an enslaved person owned by her. The person in question had been in the service of Rev. Havermans, a Dutch Jesuit from the Maryland Province who was transferred to New…

After the sale of 1838, Dr. Jesse Batey requested an indemnification for three enslaved persons: an enslaved woman, and two infirm enslaved men. This letter from Fr. Vespre to Fr. McElroy recounts Dr. Batey's claim and the position of the Jesuits on…

In this letter written six years after the sale of 1838, Fr. Vespre notifies Fr. Mulledy that their agent in New Orleans, Edmund Forstall, had negotiated a new payment arrangement with Gov. Johnson for the money due to the Jesuits from the sale of…

This balance sheet for 1839 (compiled by Joseph Zwinge, S.J., in 1909) shows proceeds from three prior sales of enslaved people: a sale to Henry Johnson in 1835, a sale from White Marsh to Grafton Tyler in 1838, and a sale from St. Thomas Manor to a…

Three photographs of Frank Campbell, one of the enslaved people sold by the Maryland Jesuits in 1838. These photographs are included in a scrapbook from the early 1900s that belonged to Robert Ruffin Barrow, Jr., which is held at Ellender Memorial…

In 1797, Patrick Barnes, an enslaved man from Bohemia plantation, purchased his freedom from the Fr. Ambrose Maréchal, a Sulpician priest in charge of the farm.

According to the freedom bond, the price of Barnes' freedom was £200 pounds and Fr.…