Along with many of the nation’s earliest colleges and universities, Georgetown University’s origins are inextricably entwined with slavery. Georgetown officials announced a series of new steps the university will take to atone for its past on Thursday.
Georgetown president John J. DeGioia will offer a formal, public apology for the university’s historic connection with slavery, and the university plans to also create an institute for the study of slavery, as well as a memorial on campus to the slaves sold in 1838. In addition, Georgetown will continue to foster a deeper relationship with the descendants of the enslaved people sold in 1838, including treating descendants with the same scrutiny and preference in the admissions process as legacy students.
The university will also rename two buildings on campus to recognize two African Americans who were part of Georgetown history – an enslaved man who was part of the sale in 1838, and a free Black woman who was an educator and Catholic sister.
Georgetown takes its cue from recommendations contained in a report released on Thursday morning from a university working group on slavery, memory and reconciliation, which was formed in 2015 and is charged with reconciling Georgetown with its past. The working group committee called on university leaders to make amends for the past, concluding in the report, “An outright apology is not yet part of the history for the University. It ought to be.”
When Georgetown was founded, it derived its operating budget in part from charitable donations, bequests, and from the profits generated by the Jesuits’ Maryland plantations, then run with slave labor. However, by 1838 the plantations were not creating enough profit to sustain themselves, let alone provide funds for the young university.
That reality, in combination with the debts that Georgetown had accrued, occasioned the sale of the 272 slaves forced to work in the Maryland plantations. In total, Georgetown made $115,000, or $3.3 million in today’s money from the sale.
