Journal of the Early Republic

Abstract:

In 1838, the Maryland Province Jesuits sold the nearly three hundred people they enslaved on their plantations to Louisiana. Part of the proceeds of that sale went to pay down the debts amassed by Georgetown University. This is how most people understand the historical ties between Georgetown and slavery. This article situates Georgetown’s relationship to the institution in a more sustained context. It emphasizes slavery’s role in the daily life of campus, examines the lives of the enslaved there, and illuminates the university’s deeper relationship to both the Maryland plantations and regional Catholic slaveholding networks. Further, it considers how these connections influenced intellectual thought on campus. The article extends scholarship on slavery and higher education to not only focus on the institution’s foundational complicities, but also emphasizes the demands of the enslaved and their descendants in our contemporary moment.