Browse Items (458 total)

Marshall reports that the Society is living beyond its means and must sell real property. No prospect that the Maryland farms will be profitable in the future due to bad management. Marshall states that the province has around 300 slaves of whom…

Fr. Fenwick complains to Fr. Grassi that he does not have the resources to feed and clothe the enslaved at White Marsh. The enslaved people need blankets, clothes, and other articles. The current crop will not produce enough income to cover these…

In a letter to the new Jesuit Superior General Jan Roothaan, Rev. Thomas Mulledy SJ assesses the state of Georgetown College and poses a set of challenging questions regarding the Jesuits' slaveholding in Maryland. He asks whether the Jesuits' slave…

Rev. Francis Vespre, SJ records twenty distinct conditions placed on the sale of the people owned by the Jesuits. Conditions 1-8 have to do with the religious and family life of the people who are to be sold, and conditions 9-20 have to do with the…

Fr. McSherry wrote to Fr. Roothaan to follow up on his previous letter urging that the Jesuits consider selling their slaves. That spring, the United States fell into the throes of the Panic of 1837. McSherry lamented that if they sold then, they…

Fr. McSherry wrote to Fr. Roothaan, the Jesuit Superior General, about a conversation he had with the Archbishop of Baltimore, who suggested that the Jesuits consider selling their land and slaves and devote the proceeds "to purposes of education."…

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…

A report on the eight postulates proposed during the Maryland Provincial Congregation, and the decisions regarding each. Postulates six and eight deal with a proposal to sell the Province's slaves and indicates the sharp debate among the Jesuits over…

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.

The minute book for Georgetown's Philodemic Society records that members debated the issue of slavery in its first year. The date of the debate is not given, but it was probably late in 1830 or early 1831.