BY MARK ZIMMERMANN | Catholic Standard

(Catholic Standard photo by Mihoko Owada)

In 1838, Jesuit priests sold 272 enslaved men, women and children, most of whom were forced to leave the religious order’s Maryland farms and were transported by boat to plantation owners in Louisiana. Proceeds of the sale fortified the future of Georgetown College which had been struggling financially, but the enslaved who then toiled in grueling conditions harvesting sugar cane and cotton in Louisiana forever lost connections with family members left behind in Maryland.