Events - Event View

The event will feature a presentation on Newtown Manor, the historic Jesuit mission on the site of St. Francis Xavier Church in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. In 1774, Fr. James Walton, S.J., who presided over the mission, sold 18 men, women, and children—some to be separated from their families—in what was the largest sale of enslaved persons on record in the Church. The transaction occurred nearly 65 years before the storied sale of 1838, known as the “GU272” that saved Georgetown University. The reason? A troubled Fr. Walton was tasked with solving the problem of the “immorality” rampant at the mission, as evidenced by the presence of mixed-race enslaved laborers.

In addition to research on Newtown, the event will include a presentation on Maryland planter and Jesuit benefactor James Carroll and the slave ship “The Margaret,” as well as the life of Rev. Harry Mahoney, a grandson of Harry and Anna Mahoney, who went from an enslaved laborer to become the longest-serving African American state representative in the history of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The Mahoney family was enslaved at the St. Inigoes, Maryland, plantation and was separated in the 1838 sale.