“The priests themselves suffer ruin of both the soul and the body. For they are neither farmers nor priests nor religious, but some unspecified composite of all three.” — Father Mulledy, President of Georgetown University, describing the priests assigned to the plantations in Maryland.
With the release of Rachel L. Swarns' new book, “The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church,” we are leaning more about the five plantations and associated places in Maryland. Most of these are places with a known history, but now the story of the 272 can be added.
Some of these places are open to the public. But in the case of Woodyard, its site of the manor house is hidden in woods of a suburban neighborhood, and there is no historical marking or a gathering place.
Here is the list with a brief summary of each.
St. Clements Island
Swarns begins the saga here. This is Maryland’s Holy Grail site, where the Ark with 140 or so on board in 1634, landed and founded the colony. In 1676, Ann Joice (1660-1735) arrived here. Of mixed race, she had been born in the Caribbean and went to England. Some of her descendants would become some of the 272 souls sold and shipped to a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana.
There is not a lot known about Ann's life, but imagine her hopes and dreams as an indentured servant who was supposed to become free after the required amount of time.
Mattapany
Charles Calvert, Third Lord Baltimore (1637-1715), built a brick manor home here sometime between 1666 and 1671. It became the location of court proceedings and meetings of colonial government. Archaeology unearthed brick foundations. Ann Joice worked here for Charles Calvert.
Woodyard
In 1684, Lord Calvert returned to England. He sent Joice to Col. Henry Darnall (1645-1711), who had a plantation at modern day Clinton. Rather than set her free at the appropriate time, Darnall burned her indentured servant papers and sent her to a man who kept her in a cellar for six months.
Joice returned to Woodyard, now enslaved. She gave birth several times, the father a white man. Her descendants included Tom Crane and his brother. In June 1770, some sort of dispute arose with them and an overseer named William Ellson. They killed Ellson. Found guilty, they were hanged.
Note: The site of Darnall’s plantation manor is in a suburban neighborhood but hidden in a grove of trees. A dwelling there, probably not accessible, dates from after the Civil War.Archaeology has not been done. Search Woodyard Archeological Site for more information.
Darnall’s Chance, Darnall's home in Upper Marlboro, can be visited. His Lordship’s Manor is a private residence about a mile south of the site of Woodyard.
White Marsh
White Marsh was where the priests began to hold meetings to discuss the sale of enslaved. They created a new body called Representative Body of Clergy. Six leaders would oversee the plantations. Land was acquired in Georgetown and the selling of slaves was approved. Father John Carroll (1735-1815) who became first Bishop in the US, approved the plans and selling.
Swarns weaves the story of the descendants of Joice mostly at White Marsh and St. Inigoes. They include Harry and Anna Mahoney and their kin. Two were Charles and Patrick, who were enslaved here. Knowing that Ann had fought for her freedom as an indentured servant, Charles and Patrick resisted and fought for theirs, too. Their case went to trial (1797 or so) and initially looked good for them. But the priests presented two witnesses who claimed that Joice was enslaved and not indentured. The jury ruled against Charles and Patrick.
89 of the 272 came from White Marsh, which probably had the most through the years. Recent news includes the re-discovery of the cemetery of the enslaved who toiled there, and identifying stones and burial places. Descendants and an anthropologist were part of the process.
St. Inigoes
St. Inigoes was the second largest plantation with 80 enslaved humans sold. Swarns gives the most coverage to St. Inigoes, as this is where the Mahoney family were located. One was Harry Mahoney who married Anna in late 1790s. Anna and Harry Mahoney had five children here. When the British besieged the Chesapeake region with a reign of terror during War of 1812, Harry hid and protected bag of cash. The priest thanked and appreciated him.
In 1818, the Archbishop of Baltimore visited. Father Mobberly had been the priest here and had treated the enslaved badly. Mobberly was ousted. New was Father Carbery. In 1832, he instituted a system where the enslaved at St. Inigoes were like tenant farms, keeping and selling some of the agricultural products. The Mahoney family liked him. The plantation was productive and out of debt.
Anne Mahoney married Arnold Jones, a sailor. They had two children, Arnold and Louisa. Jones fled but was caught and returned. Father Carbery purchased him and he was reunited with his family.
In September 1836, Mulledy, President of Georgetown, visited. He was pushing more and more for the sell of the enslaved at the plantations. Father Carbery continued to object. Harry Mahoney was the oldest of the extended family there. Daughter Nelly worked at St. Mary’s in Alexandria, helping the priest there.
Father Mulberry came to St Iginoes in June, 1838 and announced the sale. Father Carbery told some of the enslaved to run.
41 were sent to the slave pen in Alexandria. On November 13, two ships took them to the plantation in Louisiana. Buyers were Henry Johnson and Jesse Batey, planters at Iberville in Louisiana. Johnson (1783-1864) had served as Governor of Louisiana from 1824 to 1828, Congressman from 1834 to 1839, and would become US Senator from 1844 to 1849.
Among them were Harry’s wife Anna, and children, Arnold, age 8, Louisa, age 6, Anna’s older sister Bibiana and her husband, Name and there children.
St. Thomas
Not much coverage for St. Thomas Manor. One can imagine though the fear and horror that struck when the enslaved saw the ship coming into Port Tobacco before they were taken away to Alexandria.
In terms of historical marking at all these sites, its hard to know which ones have any. Using "272," a search of the HMDB reveals one at St. Thomas.
Newtown
Father Havermans was located here. Like Father Carbery, he objected to the selling. 56 enslaved were sold.
Bohemia
This was a far flung locale on the upper Eastern Shore. In 1838, when the Jesuits decided to begin to sell off the enslaved, their first target was at Bohemia. Some names were Nell, Perry, Esther, Sarah, and Jerry. Eventually, 24 would be sold. Some enslaved there had resisted by running away or slowing down.
Other Locations
Alexandria
In June, 1838, 51 of the first group of the 272 were taken to the Slave Pen at 1314 Duke Street. As Swarns point out, Franklin and Armfield, who had made millions sending enslaved humans to the Deep South, had mostly retired by then.
George Kephart, assisted by Robert A. Windsor, a constable in Alexandria, had taken over the operation. On June 21, 1838, the 51 were chained and marched to the waterfront and put on the Uncas. Franklin and Armfield had acquired it as built to order. The Uncas had taken hundreds and hundreds of souls from Alexandria to New Orleans. The Freedom House museum is a must see to learn about this saddest of chapters in US history.
In an interview with Terry Gross (Fresh Air), Swarns described the scene:
“If you had been there on a wharf that day, you would have seen scores of people being loaded onto a ship – forcibly loaded. There were elderly people, husbands and wives, children, babies wailing.”
On November 13, 130 more of the 272 were imprisoned at the slave pen. Two were 70 years old and one was just two months old. They were put on the Katharine Jackson, a 456-ton vessel. One of the largest sellings of enslaved humans in the US had now been completed.
Woodstock
A central character in Swarns’ book is Louisa Mahoney Mason. She survived the sweep that took away the 272, and remained at St. Inigoes. Gabriel Bennett, a grandson of Manoney, was a cook here. Gabriel and his brother Daniel spent their adult lives working here.
Melissa Kemp, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Louisa Mahoney Mason and an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, grew up in Woodstock.
Swarns tells us members of the Mahoney family moved to Woodstock. They continued to work for the Jesuits, who has established a seminary there. The family was part of the "thriving black Catholic community" in Woodstock.
Recently, archivists at the Woodstock College Archives at the Georgetown Library identified a photograph of Louisa Mahoney Mason. Woodstock College (1869–1974) was a Jesuit seminary west of Baltimore. The campus buildings are now part of a Job Corps Center.
Comments