272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants?

[Anonymous]

NY Times Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html

The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nation’s capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance.

But on this day, in the fall of 1838, no one was spared: not the 2-month-old baby and her mother, not the field hands, not the shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins, who was about 13 years old when he was forced onboard.

Their panic and desperation would be mostly forgotten for more than a century. But this was no ordinary slave sale. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nation’s most prominent Jesuit priests. And they were sold, along with scores of others, to help secure the future of the premier Catholic institution of higher learning at the time, known today as Georgetown University.

Now, with racial protests roiling college campuses, an unusual collection of Georgetown professors, students, alumni and genealogists is trying to find out what happened to those 272 men, women and children. And they are confronting a particularly wrenching question: What, if anything, is owed to the descendants of slaves who were sold to help ensure the college’s survival?

More than a dozen universities — including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and the University of Virginia — have publicly recognized their ties to slavery and the slave trade. But the 1838 slave sale organized by the Jesuits, who founded and ran Georgetown, stands out for its sheer size, historians say.

At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. The college relied on Jesuit plantations in Maryland to help finance its operations, university officials say. (Slaves were often donated by prosperous parishioners.) And the 1838 sale — worth about $3.3 million in today’s dollars — was organized by two of Georgetown’s early presidents, both Jesuit priests.

[ Edited by Admin to comply with copyright laws. ]

[Anonymous]

What Does It Owe Their Descendants?

Scholarships?

[Anonymous]

This thread should go well... Okay, I'll bite. I'd say nothing. It's been almost 200 years.

[Anonymous]

Ask not what your country can do for you buy what you can do for your country

[Anonymous]

How about the Union dead and wounded in the Civil War? There are your "reparations." Time to move on and stop wallowing in victimhood.

[Anonymous]

Apology, all expenses paid schooling at Georgetown or equivalent in cash at minimum.

[Anonymous]

I think scholarships to GT would be perfectly reasonable.

[Anonymous]

OP

For the direct descendants I say full scholarship for undergrad if student maintains at least a 3.0. Overall Georgetown should look to increase their black student population from 6% to 10% by actively recruiting qualified students. Most black students apply to universities that are cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask not what your country can do for you buy what you can do for your country

This. +10000

[Anonymous]

I don't know that specific reparations for historical injustices is the best way forward. Might it not be better to ensure that every citizen is afforded a good education, access to medical care, social services, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP

For the direct descendants I say full scholarship for undergrad if student maintains at least a 3.0. Overall Georgetown should look to increase their black student population from 6% to 10% by actively recruiting qualified students. Most black students apply to universities that are cheaper.

Maybe a 2.75 or even 2.5 to accommodate for maybe a rigorous course load or a transition period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that specific reparations for historical injustices is the best way forward. Might it not be better to ensure that every citizen is afforded a good education, access to medical care, social services, etc?

The Japanese, the Jews (of Germany), and Native Americans received reparations. It seems as if AAs have been blatantly left out of the mix when the entire world benefited from slavery. I don't think a check for every AA is even feasible but in this case scholarships from the institution that sold your ancestors to save themselves is the least they can do.

[Anonymous]

Set aside $3.3M for AA scholarships...

[Anonymous]

What will England give to me for what was done to my Irish ancestors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that specific reparations for historical injustices is the best way forward. Might it not be better to ensure that every citizen is afforded a good education, access to medical care, social services, etc?

The Japanese, the Jews (of Germany), and Native Americans received reparations. It seems as if AAs have been blatantly left out of the mix when the entire world benefited from slavery. I don't think a check for every AA is even feasible but in this case scholarships from the institution that sold your ancestors to save themselves is the least they can do.

What raparations do you think native Americans have received? The US government has famously broken every single treaty. There is litigation over Indian money that Interior has been fighting for literally decades.

Holy cow you are ignorant.