The marriage of Charles Taylor, a man enslaved at Georgetown College, to Mary Ann Boarman, a free woman of color, took place on September 22, 1836 at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. Taylor appears to have been sold to the college by the Jenkins…
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…
Georgetown Film Studies students explore the parallels between a Jesuit’s unanswered plea and a University’s reconnection with the descendants of slaves it owned, sold, and spurned. With the call for accountability in Father Van de Velde, S.J.’s 1848…
Georgetown is buzzing with the excitement of reunion and reconciliation. The successors of slave-owning Jesuits and the ancestors of those they owned are coming back together in 2017 in the spirit of penance and forgiveness. In this podcast,…
In this letter from 1832 Fr. Kenney asks Fr. Neale to provide him with "the number and description of the Blacks, whom you would sell to Mr. John Lee and to Mr. Horsey." Kenney mentions Louisiana as their destination, stating that the planters…
Fr. Van de Velde pleads with the Jesuit Provincial in Maryland to contribute $1000 for a church in Louisiana for use of the enslaved people they had sold in 1838. This is the second letter from Van de Velde to the Maryland Jesuits on the topic. He…