Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-313) and index.
Contents:
Arrivals -- A church's captives -- Freedom fever -- A new generation -- The promise -- A college on the rise -- Love and peril -- Saving Georgetown -- The sale -- A family dividend -- Exile -- New roots -- Freedom -- The profits.
Summary:
"In 1838, a group of America's most prominent Catholic priests sold 272 enslaved people to save their largest mission project, what is now Georgetown University. In this groundbreaking account, journalist, author, and professor Rachel L. Swarns follows one family through nearly two centuries of indentured servitude and enslavement to uncover the harrowing origin story of the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the saga of the Mahoney family, Swarns illustrates how the Church relied on slave labor and slave sales to sustain its operations and to help finance its expansion." --Amazon.com.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.