The 272 : the families who were enslaved and sold to build the American Catholic Church / Rachel L. Swarns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Swarns, Rachel L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Maryland--History.

Slavery.

Georgetown University--History.

Georgetown University.

Jesuits--United States--History.

Jesuits.

African Americans--Genealogy.

African Americans.

Slavery and the church--Catholic Church--History.

Slavery and the church.

Slavery and the church--United States--History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xviii, 326 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, portraits (some color) ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Two hundred seventy two, the families who were enslaved and sold to build the American Catholic Church

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [2023]

Summary:

"In 1838, a group of America's most prominent Catholic priests sold 272 enslaved people to save their largest mission project, what is now Georgetown University. In this groundbreaking account, journalist, author, and professor Rachel L. Swarns follows one family through nearly two centuries of indentured servitude and enslavement to uncover the harrowing origin story of the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the saga of the Mahoney family, Swarns illustrates how the Church relied on slave labor and slave sales to sustain its operations and to help finance its expansion." --Amazon.com.

"In 1838, a group of America's most prominent Catholic priests sold 272 enslaved people to save their mission, the fledgling Georgetown University. Journalist, author, and professor Rachel L. Swarns has broken new ground with her prodigious research into a history that the Catholic Church has edited out of its own narrative. Beginning in the present, when two descendants of a family enslaved by the church reconnect, Swarns follows their ancestors through the centuries to understand how slavery enabled the Catholic Church to establish a foothold in America and fuel its expansion. Ann Joice, a free Black woman and progenitor of the Mahoney family, sailed to Maryland in the 1600s as an indentured servant, but her contract was burned and her freedom stolen. Harry Mahoney, Ann's grandson, saved lives and a Church fortune with his quick thinking during the British incursions in the War of 1812. But when the Jesuits fell into debt and were at risk of losing Georgetown University, they sold 272 people, including Harry's daughter Anna, to plantation owners in the Gulf. Like so many of the families the Jesuits' sale tore apart, Anna would never again see her father or her beloved sister Louisa who stayed with Harry in Maryland. Her descendants would work for the Jesuits well into the 20th century. The two sides of the family would remain apart until Swarns' original reporting on the 1838 sale in the New York Times reunited them and led directly to reparations for all the descendants of the enslaved"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Arrivals

A church's captives

Freedom fever

A new generation

The promise

A college on the rise

Love and peril

Saving Georgetown

The sale

A family dividend

Exile

New roots

Freedom

The profits.

A family divided

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [237]-313) and index.

American Book Awards - Winner, 2024

Local Notes:

HSP Copy: Pennsylvania Abolition Society Complimentary Collection

Other Format:

Online version: Swarns, Rachel L. 272.

ISBN:

9780399590863

0399590862

OCLC:

1354504740