Join Hard Histories at Hopkins for a virtual discussion about the centrality of slavery to the rise of Catholic universities. In recent years, Georgetown University and Loyola University Maryland have been grappling with their institutions’ connections to enslavement. Jesuit priests sold 272 enslaved people to two Louisiana planters in 1838. The Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus received the proceeds from that sale. Jesuits used the money to financially prop up Georgetown, and support the establishment of Loyola University Maryland in 1852. Both universities are now reckoning with questions surrounding reconciliation and reparations. 

This webinar will feature two key experts in this history. Journalist Rachel L. Swarns is the author of the book The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. The book centers on one family – the Mahoneys – and their members’ experiences with enslavement, freedom, and the Catholic church across centuries. Dr. David Carey Jr. is the Doehler Chair in History at Loyola, and a key leader of the university’s task force that has studied – and is newly publishing about – Loyola’s connections to the 1838 sale. Swarns and Carey will be in discussion with Hard Histories at Hopkins Project Director Dr. Martha S. Jones.

Click on this link for full event information and event registration.