The Death of Susanna Becraft, November 1834

Dublin Core

Title

The Death of Susanna Becraft, November 1834

Subject

Burial records--Washington (D.C.)
Cemeteries--Washington (D.C.)
Oblate Sisters of Providence--History.
African American Catholics--History.

Description

Holy Trinity Church recorded the death and burial of Susanna Becraft in the College Ground on November 12, 1834.

A 15-year-old postulant from the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Becraft died after battling consumption. According to historian Diane Batts Marrow, Becraft left the Oblate community in August of 1834 and died at her parents' home. [1]

Susanna Becraft was the sister of Anne Marie Becraft, founder of one of the first schools for Black girls in Georgetown, and one of the first Black nuns in the country. In April 2017 Georgetown University renamed a building for Anne Marie Becraft.

The "College Ground" was located near the site of the Reiss Science Building on Georgetown's campus. This cemetery was built over in 1953 and the remains of roughly fifty people were reinterred at Mount Olivet Cemetery, but those remains were only a small fraction of all the people who were buried there.

[1] Diane Batts Morrow, Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: the Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860 (University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 82.

Creator

Georgetown University
Holy Trinity Church

Publisher

Georgetown Slavery Archive

Date

11-12-1834

Contributor

Elsa Barraza Mendoza

Rights

Georgetown University Library

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

Manuscript

Identifier

GSA442

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

12 Susanna Becraft, (cold.) daughter of William Becraft & of Sally McDonald, was buried in the College Ground paid 15

Files

Citation

Georgetown University Holy Trinity Church, “The Death of Susanna Becraft, November 1834,” Georgetown Slavery Archive, accessed January 21, 2025, https://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/525.

Geolocation