Catholic Slaveowners and the Development of Georgetown University’s Slave Hiring System, 1792–1862

This article examines the place of enslaved laborers in the founding and operations of Georgetown University. It draws evidence from the school’s administrative and financial records; the archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus; and manuscript collections in Maryland and Washington, DC. The school generally rented rather than bought and owned enslaved people to work on campus. The school used its position as a provider of education and religious services to obtain enslaved laborers from two types of Catholic slaveowners: priests and parents—women in particular—who sent their children to Georgetown. Enslaved laborers worked at the school from its earliest days until the abolition of slavery in Washington, DC, in 1862. Indeed, the school’s last enslaved worker, Aaron Edmonson, left campus in March of 1862, only a month before the passage of the Compensated Emancipation Act of the District of Columbia

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• At Peace with all Their Neighbors

  James M Woods, William W Warner•Journal of American History•1995

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