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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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. ]

The RCC is still fighting all of those pedophile priest suits tooth and nail. Good luck getting them to pay up for this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students or people of color is appropriate. Look it up.

CP, POC -- there is no discernable difference, except for "of." To say one is offensive and the other is "correct" is P.C. lap dancing on the head of a pin!

It's called "people first language," and it's important to many communities, including people with disabilities (see how I did that? They don't like being called disabled people, they like being called people...with disabilities.)

just about the dumbest thing... that is simply stupid.

You seriously object to individuals asking to be recognized first as people and secondly by their various characteristics?

I know what kind of people that makes you...an asshole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

This. +10000

This sounds like the hypo racy I was fed growing up in a communist country (sorrY, JFK). Private school is not even a country. Georgetown should at least remember the shameful chapters in its past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

This. +10000

NYT article = BS, not news.

[Anonymous]

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

We should compare their average life outcomes compared to the outcomes of descendants left back in Africa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

We should compare their average life outcomes compared to the outcomes of descendants left back in Africa.

And compare the average life outcomes of white people to the outcomes of most people living in Europe three or four hundred years ago and....we're even.

Next?

[Anonymous]

Assuming Georgetown paid full reparations to all living descendants in cash/scholarships today. What next? What would happen to the off-spring of today's generation? Some would benefit, many, many others would not. It would be like the stories of lottery winners. A lot of money squandered in a short period of time. I doubt the following generations would benefit much. This is pretty much the argument against reparations in general.

Georgetown should just make a $3 million donation to a black scholarship fund and wash their hands of the matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assuming Georgetown paid full reparations to all living descendants in cash/scholarships today. What next? What would happen to the off-spring of today's generation? Some would benefit, many, many others would not. It would be like the stories of lottery winners. A lot of money squandered in a short period of time. I doubt the following generations would benefit much. This is pretty much the argument against reparations in general.

Georgetown should just make a $3 million donation to a black scholarship fund and wash their hands of the matter.

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting reparations, but it's interesting that people assume cash payouts are the answer anyone is looking for. There are lots of thoughtful ways Georgetown can acknowledge its shameful past and attempt to make up for it going forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming Georgetown paid full reparations to all living descendants in cash/scholarships today. What next? What would happen to the off-spring of today's generation? Some would benefit, many, many others would not. It would be like the stories of lottery winners. A lot of money squandered in a short period of time. I doubt the following generations would benefit much. This is pretty much the argument against reparations in general.

Georgetown should just make a $3 million donation to a black scholarship fund and wash their hands of the matter.

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting reparations, but it's interesting that people assume cash payouts are the answer anyone is looking for. There are lots of thoughtful ways Georgetown can acknowledge its shameful past and attempt to make up for it going forward.

A lot of people use the word shameful and that is not accurate. Slavery was the way things were 200 years ago. Georgetown also didn't admit women until about 1970. Obama and both Clintons spoke out against equality for gays just a few short years ago. There are things we do today as a matter of routine that will be looked down on in 50 years. Our society has made great progress, and that's great.

[Anonymous]

Georgetown owes them NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING. How many years has it been since this sale took place? Certainly over 100. Get over this crap already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming Georgetown paid full reparations to all living descendants in cash/scholarships today. What next? What would happen to the off-spring of today's generation? Some would benefit, many, many others would not. It would be like the stories of lottery winners. A lot of money squandered in a short period of time. I doubt the following generations would benefit much. This is pretty much the argument against reparations in general.

Georgetown should just make a $3 million donation to a black scholarship fund and wash their hands of the matter.

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting reparations, but it's interesting that people assume cash payouts are the answer anyone is looking for. There are lots of thoughtful ways Georgetown can acknowledge its shameful past and attempt to make up for it going forward.

A lot of people use the word shameful and that is not accurate. Slavery was the way things were 200 years ago. Georgetown also didn't admit women until about 1970. Obama and both Clintons spoke out against equality for gays just a few short years ago. There are things we do today as a matter of routine that will be looked down on in 50 years. Our society has made great progress, and that's great.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming Georgetown paid full reparations to all living descendants in cash/scholarships today. What next? What would happen to the off-spring of today's generation? Some would benefit, many, many others would not. It would be like the stories of lottery winners. A lot of money squandered in a short period of time. I doubt the following generations would benefit much. This is pretty much the argument against reparations in general.

Georgetown should just make a $3 million donation to a black scholarship fund and wash their hands of the matter.

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting reparations, but it's interesting that people assume cash payouts are the answer anyone is looking for. There are lots of thoughtful ways Georgetown can acknowledge its shameful past and attempt to make up for it going forward.

A lot of people use the word shameful and that is not accurate. Slavery was the way things were 200 years ago. Georgetown also didn't admit women until about 1970. Obama and both Clintons spoke out against equality for gays just a few short years ago. There are things we do today as a matter of routine that will be looked down on in 50 years. Our society has made great progress, and that's great.

By this logic, I guess the Holocaust should be forgotten since it was over 70 years ago and the reparations paid now and in the past were wrong.

[Anonymous]

Well, what will the descendants of 272 slaves pay to the descendants of dead union soldiers?

[Anonymous]

They will be relocated for free when major US cities are underwater from global warming. Since this is an absolute certainty according to liberals , it is a very good deal for everybody.

[Anonymous]

The difference I see between Holocaust reparations and reparations for AAs is that the Holocaust reparations came fairly quickly after the harm was inflicted. The people who were directly harmed and their direct descendants were available. No one doubts that African Americans are not treated fairly in our society, but the direct harms of slavery are impossible to determine. So I don't understand how reparations would work in this case. How do you determine what is owed and to whom?