Some of the background for the new N Y Times article on Jesuits's selling 272 slaves South in 1838

AFRICAN ROOTS

Welcome to African Roots! This site was built by Patricia Bayonne-Johnson who is researching the surnames Bayonne, Randall, Hicks, Morgan, Sterling/Stirling, Briant and Taylor of Louisiana; Estes and Jones of Mississippi; Butler of Maryland and Louisiana. Family members are invited to share their research, stories, traditions and images.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

JESUIT PLANTATION PROJECT

The Society of Jesus owned six plantations in the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which they relied on to support their ministries. The estates totaled 12,000 acres on four large properties in southern Prince Georges, Charles and St. Mary's counties and two smaller estates on Maryland's eastern shore. These estates were presented to them by the Lords Baltimore who were Catholic and used slaves to work them. The slaves were gifts to the Jesuits from wealthy Catholic familes to sustain the church