The 272 moves quickly across the decades toward the mass 1838 sale. In 1835 Jesuit leaders in Maryland found themselves in dire economic straits. Georgetown College was in deep debt, as was the administrative organization of Jesuits in the region, known as the Maryland Province. The president of Georgetown, Thomas Mulledy, had contributed to the school’s financial troubles by embarking on an ambitious plan to erect more buildings. His proposal for returning the school and region to solvency was to sell the plantations and slaves owned by the church.
Mulledy argued that the plantations and the people held there were a burden for the church, antiquated assets that could be leveraged for financial renewal. William McSherry, the provincial superior, agreed that a mass sale would make economic sense. However, some priests felt it would be wrong to sell away Black people who were also Catholics and had long-standing ties to the church community. Even priests who managed these plantations and espoused racially prejudiced views objected to the callous treatment of Black workers. After a debate that lasted about six days, the Provincial Congress elected to liquidate some of their plantation holdings.
The process began with the immediate sale of four women from one plantation days after the meeting in July, followed by the sale of two families from another plantation in September. They were purchased by Henry Johnson of Louisiana, a Protestant who would allow them to practice Catholicism. In 1836 the Maryland Jesuits sought approval from the church in Rome for a mass sale. Church leaders consented to the plan with twenty stipulations, including that buyers must support Catholic religious practice, and that couples and, “as far as it is possible,” parents and children should be kept together.
Father Joseph Carbery, who oversaw St. Inigoes plantation and had taken a liberal approach to management there, supporting Black initiative and semi-autonomy, vehemently objected to this decision and traveled to Georgetown hoping to intervene. According to stories that were passed down in the family, when Harry Mahoney saw that the priest had no appetite when he returned, Mahoney pronounced, “We’re sold!”
Swarns excels at scene setting and historical portraiture. She dramatizes how the courageous Harry Mahoney saved the Jesuits’ money and led enslaved girls to safety during a British attack in the War of 1812, how the cantankerous college president Thomas Mulledy was intent on enlarging and embellishing Georgetown’s campus and selling people to raise the funds, and how the persistent Archbishop John Baptist Purcell of Cincinnati urged the church to adopt the cause of abolition.