Enable High Contrast Mode
Disable High Contrast Mode
Article | September 14, 2023
Book Review: The Shameful History of When the Jesuits Sold Enslaved People.
America Magazine – In 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, long a major slaveholder in the mid-Atlantic region, sold 272 of the men, women and children it owned to purchasers in Louisiana….
Article | August 31, 2023
It Stops You Cold: The 272 People Sold To Fund Georgetown
The Guardian – In 1676, a Black teenager named Ann Joice arrived on the shores of Maryland with hopes of a new life…
Article | August 29, 2023
How the U.S. Catholic Church Profited from Slavery
U.S. Catholic Magazine – In ‘The 272,’ Rachel Swarns recounts how the Jesuit order relied on slave sales to finance their expansion and build the U.S. church as we know it today.
Article | July 28, 2023
Book Review: Slaves of Georgetown
The Wall Street Journal – In November 1838, a sad if familiar scene played out on the docks of Alexandria, Va., as slave traders herded scores of enslaved men, women and children onto a ship bound for cotton plantations in faraway Louisiana…
Podcast | July 26, 2023
Exploring the Untold Stories of Families Enslaved in Louisiana
WWNO New Orleans Public Radio – This Saturday, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library will hold a day-long symposium examining the efforts of genealogists to uncover the untold stories of families enslaved in Louisiana. Much of the symposium will be based on research by Rachel Swarns…
Article | July 13, 2023
Book Review: An Intimate Account of the Enslaved People Sold to Save Georgetown
Washington Post – It was through Rachel Swarns’s reporting…in the New York Times that many Americans came to know that the Jesuits not only owned enslaved people but also sold human property to pay the debts of one of the most prestigious universities in the country. In her new book, Swarns relays the hard facts of these atrocities and weaves together extensive research, data, letters and oral histories to bring forth an intimate family story.
Video | July 8, 2023
Author Rachel Swarns Discusses Her New Book
NY1 – A new book dives into the dark history of the Catholic church and follows the enslavement of 272 Black Americans by Jesuit priests in 1838.
Article | July 7, 2023
Georgetown Was Trying to Atone for its Past in the Slave Trade. Now What?
Politico Magazine – When Rachel Swarns first learned of the sale, she was “flabbergasted.” The former New York Times correspondent had been writing about the legacy of slavery when she discovered something that shocked her as a Black Catholic woman…
Article | July 6, 2023
Writing about Georgetown’s Slaveholding Past Has Not Shaken Black Catholic Author’s Faith
America Magazine – The Catholic Standard | Since 2016, Rachel L. Swarns has been researching Georgetown University’s involvement in the slave trade, including the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved people to help pay off debts the Jesuit priests incurred in running the university…
Article | June 28, 2023
Book Review: The Slave Sale that Saved – and Stained – Georgetown
The New York Times Book Review – The Slave Sale that Saved – and Stained – Georgetown