Your statutes are my heritageISAAC HAWKINS, along with his children and grandchildren, were among the 272 slaves sold by Maryland’s Jesuits in 1838 to pay off Georgetown University’s debts. The Jesuit-run university relied on money generated from the plantations the order owned. The slaves, who included babies and old people, were sold for $115,000, about $3.3m today, to plantations in Louisiana, where they laboured in dreadful conditions on cotton and sugar plantations.
Although Father Thomas Mulledy, who ran the college then, had the Vatican’s approval for the sale, the Holy See imposed conditions. It insisted that families remained together and that they continued to practise their faith. This promise was not kept. More than 170 years later, John DeGioia, Georgetown’s president, has apologised for the university’s role in slavery. In an attempt to make amends, he announced that descendants of the Jesuit-owned slaves would be considered part of the Georgetown community, and would have preference if they applied to the university.
These ideas came from the university’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2cghUwd
EmoticonEmoticon