General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsToday's enlightening thought...
History is not there for you to like or dislike.
It is there for you to learn from it.
And if it offends you, even better. Because then you are less likely to repeat it.
It's not yours to erase. It belongs to all of us!
Author unknown
Maybe we can get a second grade student to read this to DeSantis, and explain it to him in simple terms.
Mr.Bill
(24,906 posts)better hurry before DeSantis bans kids learning how to read in the schools.
dchill
(42,660 posts)Upthevibe
(10,233 posts)Joinfortmill
(21,666 posts)markodochartaigh
(5,545 posts)it's a feature
Lonestarblue
(13,560 posts)I never knew that the Catholic church owned slaves. And in the 1800s, the lead priests chose to sell 272 slaves to settle the debts they had run up for what is today Georgetown University. They broke apart families, selling children, husbands, and wives. This is the history that DeSantis and other Republicans want to deny and make todays children believe that white people never did anything bad. They did, and we all need to come to terms with our history, not hide it.
The article is an excerpt from a new book, The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church, by Rachel Swarns, a descendent of one of those families.
After weeks of haggling over price, Mulledy, Johnson, and Batey had come to an agreement. They met in Washington, to put the deal into writing: 272 men, women, and children many of whom belonged to families that had been enslaved by the Jesuits for generations were to be sold for the sum of $115,000, roughly $422 per person. The handwritten agreement, signed by all three men, ran to eight pages.
Enter stage left
(4,634 posts)They're only 10 cents each.