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In 'The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church,' Rachel Swarns tells of “one of the largest documented slave sales in the nation," the Jesuit sale of 272 enslaved persons in 1838.
Georgetown University and the Jesuits have presented a gift of $27 million to fund the descendants of enslaved people who were sold to pay off a debt at the school in the 19th century
The descendants of Ann Joice, separated as part of the sale of 272 people, are at the center of a vital new work
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.
WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- 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. There were some detours along the way. A pandemic for one. A career (and literal) move from Washington for another, leaving her job in The New York Times' Washington bureau to be a professor at New York University. But the story needed to be t