GU272 Family Legacies: Louisa Mahoney’s Family Narrative

GU272 Family Legacies: Louisa Mahoney’s Family Narrative

Black Jesuits

In 1838, Thomas F Mulledy agreed to sell 272 slaves to Louisiana to repay Georgetown’s rising debts. Not even the 1-year-old child, or the feeble 65-year-old was safe from the GU272 Slave Agreement. Two centuries later, the sale became infamous for its magnitude and its effect on the descendants of the enslaved people, who became known as the GU272. According to the GU272 Memory Project, 108 individuals part of the original 1838 sale stayed on the Maryland plantation or were sold to other states. Some of the GU272 descendants still live in or around Maryland today. In a recent attempt to acknowledge and reconcile its historical ties with slavery, Georgetown launched the GU Slavery Archive, which encompasses documents, interviews, and podcasts memorializing the legacy of enslaved Jesuits and their descendants. Students and faculty played a focal role in uncovering Georgetown’s history of slavery and pushing the university to issue reparations for the descendants of slavery. Student-produced documents brought to fore the GU community’s commitment to commemorate the GU272 and engage with descendants.

Written by Paul Rochford, a Georgetown Student, “Louisa Mahoney Mason’s family Narrative” highlights the legacy and lived experience of Louisa Mahoney and her descendants. Louisa, a previously enslaved Jesuit woman part of the GU272 Slave agreement, navigated through the struggles of Jesuit enslavement to become a significant matriarchal figure in her community, known for her commitment towards community building, faithfulness, and guardianship. Born on the Maryland plantation, Louisa labored as a “domestic servant” for the Jesuits; she escaped the 1838 slave agreement by hiding in the forest from her enslavers. After the 1838 Sale, Louisa “kept in touch” with her family, who were shipped out to Louisiana, reflecting her dedication towards family and community preservation. Louisa lost her brothers because of the slave trade and her husband due to racism—stemming from institutional slavery. Nevertheless, she still nurtured her children and taught them the importance of family and religion. For generations to come, the Mason family honored Louisa’s legacy by showing their commitment towards preserving a close-knit community as they dealt with the repercussions of slavery.

Louisa and her family navigated through racial degradation, Jim Crow, and racial injustices to forge their identities and legacy within the same institutions, which enslaved and repressed their voices. African Americans undergo similar obstacles in their pursuit of recognition and equality today, as illustrated by the recent waves of BLM demonstrations condemning racial injustice. Therefore, Georgetown should not restrict itself to solely memorializing GU272 narratives and offering compensatory benefits for descendants; it should also address the racial inequalities present today due to institutional slavery. This can be done by directly engaging the university’s students with courses and events, connecting the university’s entanglements with slavery to the current state of the GU272 descendants today. Also, the university can build a framework that directly connects descendants and students because this would facilitate more research projects on the aftermath of institutional slavery. Family narratives like Mahoney’s are a microcosm of enslaved experiences in the Atlantic. From the French Caribbean to Slave castles in West Africa, many enslaved people trekked through colonial repression to formulate their own identities and historical legacies.















Bibliography


Berlin, Ira. “American Slavery in History and Memory and the Search for Social Justice.” In Facing Georgetown’s History: A Reader on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, edited by Adam Rothman and Elsa Barraza Mendoza. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2021.
Choices Program. “Black Lives Matter, the Killing of George Floyd, and the Long Fight for Racial Justice.” Accessed December 2, 2021. https://www.choices.edu/teaching-news-lesson/george-floyd-and-the-long-fight-for-racial-justice/.
“Descendant Interviews.” Accessed December 3, 2021. https://gu272.americanancestors.org/finding/descendant-interviews.
Georgetown University. “Focus Areas.” Accessed December 7, 2021. https://www.georgetown.edu/slavery/focus-areas/.
Georgetown University. “Georgetown Slavery Archive Provides Educational Outreach Events, Opportunities,” November 19, 2020. https://www.georgetown.edu/news/georgetown-slavery-archive-provides-educational-outreach-events-opportunities/.
Georgetown University Library. “Paul Rochford, ‘Louisa Mahoney Mason and Her Family’ (2020).” Georgetown Slavery Archive, 2020. https://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/503.
Savoy, Lauret. “Articles of Agreement between Thomas Mulledy, Henry Johnson, and Jesse Batey, 1838.” In Facing Georgetown’s History: A Reader on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, edited by Adam Rothman and Elsa Barraza Mendoza. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2021.
Georgetown University. “Report of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconcilliation to the President of Georgetwn University.” In Facing Georgetown’s History: A Reader on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, edited by Adam Rothman and Elsa Barraza Mendoza, 238–42. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2021.
Swarns, Rachel L. “272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants?” The New York Times, April 16, 2016, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html.

Georgetown University Library

http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/77

http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/91

Georgetown Slavery Archive

2020

Paul Rochford

Paul Rochford

http://slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu/items/show/77

PDF

English

Research Essay

GSA430

Last Jesuit Enslaved People