"I shall be obliged to sell our man not to separate man & wife" - A Jesuit priest tries to keep a family together, 1826
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This material has been re-digitized by Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University Library, accessible at: Francis Dzierozynski, S.J. (21 of 69), 1826-01-01-1826-01-24, Box 4, Folder 21, Identifier: 119_61_9, Georgetown University Manuscripts, Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, 1. Records of the Provincial, 1805-1981, 1.1 Correspondence, Chronological, 1805-1883, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University
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Revd & Dr Fr
My many & I may say daily calls to the sick, & my having attended cob-neck during all Christmas have put it out of my power to write to you. I find it necessary to inform you yr Revce That this Family must loose her best Negroe hand for labor. The reason is, his wife belongs to another person & the master has ordered her & her children to be soled. I cannot buy her, too much is demanded $500 for her & her three children - they are all girls of which we have 10 or 12 already in our family. I shall be obliged to sell our man not to separate man & wife. I have spoken to the owner of the wife he says he cannot admit her into his family at Washington he has too many &c - our carpenter Charles has not as yet returned from St. Inigo’s to which place he was taken to work for the corporation. Nothing was paid by St. Inigo’s in return for all my expences incurred for sending down the slaves, & loss of time by those who conveyed them down to St. Inigo’s.
I did ask yr Revce if the promise made by the last agent (to afford the assistance of two men to St. Thomas’s Manor) could be comply’d with? I have not received any effectual answer. I am called to another sick person & must conclude.
I remain Revd Fr affectionately yrs in Christ.
St. Thomas’s Manor Francis Neale
10 Janry1826
[p. 2]
13 January 1826 [upside down]
Port Tobacco } 10
January 11th }
Rev. Doctr Dzerinsky
George Town College
Dist. Columbia
George Town