Foreword, Lauret Savoy Acknowledgments Editors' Note Introduction, Adam Rothman Part 1: History Essays 1. Craig Steven Wilder, “War and Priests: Catholic Colleges and Slavery in the Age of Revolution” 2. Robert Emmet Curran, “ ‘Splendid Poverty’: Jesuit Slaveholding in Maryland, 1805-1838” 3. Elsa Barraza Mendoza, “Catholic Slave Owners and the Development of Georgetown University’s Slave Hiring System, 1792-1862” 4. James O’Toole, “Passing: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920” Documents 5. Enslaved People Named in a Deed, 1717 6. A Sermon on the Treatment of Slaves, 1749 7. Edward Queen Petitions for Freedom, 1791 8. Isaac Runs Away from Georgetown College, 1814 9. A Jesuit Overseer Calculates the Cost of Slave Labor, 1815 10. Baptism of Sylvester Greenleaf at Newtown, 1819 11. Fr. James Ryder, SJ, Criticizes Abolitionism, 1835 12. The Society of Jesus Sets Conditions on the Sale of the Maryland Slaves, 1836 13. Articles of Agreement between Thomas Mulledy, Henry Johnson, and Jesse Batey, 1838 14. A Jesuit Priest Witnesses Anguish at Newtown, 1838 15. Bill of Sale for Len, 1843 16. A Jesuit Priest Reports on the Fate of the Ex-Jesuit Enslaved Community in Louisiana, 1848 17. Aaron Edmonson, the Last Enslaved Worker at Georgetown, 1859-62 18. Labor Contract at West Oak Plantation, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, 1865 19. Photograph of Frank Campbell, ca. 1900  Part 2. Memory and Reconciliation Essays 20. Ira Berlin, “American Slavery in History and Memory and the Search for Social Justice” 21. Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” 22. Alondra Nelson, “The Social Life of DNA: Racial Reconciliation and Institutional Morality after the Genome” The Working Group 23. Matthew Quallen, “Slavery’s Remnants, Buried and Overlooked”  24. Toby Hung, “Student Activists Sit in outside DeGioia’s Office”  25. "Report of the Georgetown University Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, to the President of Georgetown University” 26. James Martin, SJ, “How Georgetown is Coming to Terms with Slavery in Its past” The GU272 Descendants 27. Rachel L. Swarns, “272 Slaves were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants?”  28. Rachel L. Swarns and Sona Patel, “ ‘A Million Questions’ from Descendants of Slaves Sold to Aid Georgetown” 29. Terry L. Jones, “Louisiana Families Dig into Their History, Find They Are Descendants of Slaves Sold by Georgetown University”  30. Cheryllyn Branche, “My Family’s Story in Georgetown’s Slave Past”  31. Rick Boyd, “Many in Slave Sale Cited by Georgetown Toiled in Southern Md.”  Reconciliation and Reparation 32. Remarks of Sandra Green Thomas at Georgetown University's Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope 33. Remarks of Fr. Timothy Kesicki, SJ, at Georgetown University's Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope 34. Terrence McCoy, “Her Ancestors Were Georgetown’s Slaves. Now, at Age 63, She’s Enrolled There-as a College Freshman” 35. Marc Parry, “A New Path to Atonement”  36. Jesús A. Rodríguez, “This Could Be the First Slavery Reparations Policy in America” 37. Javon Price, “Changing Perceptions on the GU272 Referendum” Epilogue, Elsa Barraza Mendoza Timeline Further Reading Index

[LEFT] Georgetown University’s relationship with slavery and its reverberations through history is a microcosm of the American story—the contradictions of liberty and enslavement at the country’s founding, the rise of the domestic slave trade to the Deep South, and the political conflict over slavery and its overthrow amid civil war. Georgetown’s past is also emblematic of the complex entanglement of higher education and religious institutions with slavery, just as the university’s initiative to face this past is part of a growing effort by these same institutions to confront systemic racism today. Facing Georgetown’s History includes crucial primary sources, drawn from the university’s and Maryland Jesuits’ archives, that document this tangled history. These records are accompanied by recent scholarship and journalism, including work by Craig Steven Wilder, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alondra Nelson, and Rachel L. Swarns, the New York Times journalist who reported on the Jesuits’ sale of 272 enslaved individuals and its implications for Georgetown. The book outlines the university’s recent mission to confront its troubling past through its Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation initiative, showing that recovery, repair, and reconciliation are part of a broader contemporary moment of reckoning with slavery and its legacies. Georgetown’s path suggests the pivotal role of universities in modeling thoughtful and informed discussion about the histories of slavery and racism in America. [RIGHT] Adam Rothman is a professor in Georgetown University’s Department of History. He is the author of Beyond Freedom’s Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of Slavery and the principal cura-tor of the Georgetown Slavery Archive. He served on Georgetown’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation from 2015–16. Elsa Barraza Mendoza is a PhD candidate in history at Georgetown University and the assistant curator of the Georgetown Slavery Archive. Lauret Savoy is the David B. Truman Professor of environmental studies at Mount Holyoke College, where she explores the marks of history on the land. The author of Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape, she also descends from people enslaved by Jesuits. [BACK] “In recent years many institutions of higher learning have tried to confront their historical relationship with slavery, but few have done so with Georgetown’s depth of research, and its awareness of how the past lives on in the present. This book is both an eye-opening account of how deeply slavery is embedded in American history, and a model for those who continue to explore this chapter of our past.”—Eric Foner, professor of history, Columbia University “Combining primary documents and essays by historians, journalists, and descendants of the 272 enslaved men, women, and children sold by Georgetown University in 1838, this edited collection provides a rich snapshot of the history and lega-cies of slave ownership by the Society of Jesus in the United States.”—Ana Lucia Araujo, author of Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past “The legacy of slavery links the past with the present at Georgetown University. Facing Georgetown’s History asks us to consider the meaning of reconciliation and reparation after centuries of racism and white supremacy. This is mandatory reading for those who are serious about facing the sins of a university, a church, and a nation.”—Michael Pasquier, associate professor of religious studies and history, Louisiana State University

In recent years many institutions of higher learning have tried to confront their historical relationship with slavery, but few have done so with the depth of research, and awareness of how the past lives on in the present, of Georgetown. This book is both an eye-opening account of how deeply slavery is embedded in American history, and a model for those who continue to explore this chapter of our past.

"In providing a space where enslaved people and their descendants’ stories are told, Facing Georgetown’s History is necessary to anyone seeking to understand this history and current reckonings with it."