The 272

The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church

By: Rachel L. Swarns

Narrated by: Karen Murray

“An absolutely essential addition to the history of the Catholic Church, whose involvement in New World slavery sustained the Church and, thereby, helped to entrench enslavement in American society.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello and On Juneteenth

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Time, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews

In 1838, a group of America’s most prominent Catholic priests sold 272 enslaved people to save their largest mission project, what is now Georgetown University. In this groundbreaking account, journalist, author, and professor Rachel L. Swarns follows one family through nearly two centuries of indentured servitude and enslavement to uncover the harrowing origin story of the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the saga of the Mahoney family, Swarns illustrates how the Church relied on slave labor and slave sales to sustain its operations and to help finance its expansion.

The story begins with Ann Joice, a free Black woman and the matriarch of the Mahoney family. Joice sailed to Maryland in the late 1600s as an indentured servant, but her contract was burned and her freedom stolen. Her descendants, who were enslaved by Jesuit priests, passed down the story of that broken promise for centuries. One of those descendants, Harry Mahoney, saved lives and the church’s money in the War of 1812, but his children, including Louisa and Anna, were put up for sale in 1838. One daughter managed to escape, but the other was sold and shipped to Louisiana. Their descendants would remain apart until Rachel Swarns’s reporting in The New York Times finally reunited them. They would go on to join other GU272 descendants who pressed Georgetown and the Catholic Church to make amends, prodding the institutions to break new ground in the movement for reparations and reconciliation in America.

Swarns’s journalism has already started a national conversation about universities with ties to slavery. The 272 tells an even bigger story, not only demonstrating how slavery fueled the growth of the American Catholic Church but also shining a light on the enslaved people whose forced labor helped to build the largest religious denomination in the nation.

©2023 Rachel Swarns (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“No single work of history can remedy the vexing issue of repair for slavery in America, but The 272 advances the conversation and challenges the collective conscience; without knowing this history in its complexity we are left with only raw, uncharted memory.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A brilliant blend of history and journalism, this book unearths the story of the enslaved people whose labor benefited the Catholic Church—and what happened when their descendants sought answers.”—People

“Swarns is a gifted writer and storyteller. But The 272 succeeds not only in its telling of a tragic story. [She] centers the experiences of enslaved people owned by the Jesuits for nearly two centuries who remained largely unnamed and unknown until now.”—The Washington Post

Details!

The details and research done to give a 360* look at this is beyond impressive and appreciated.

Hard, but absolutely worthwhile.

A meticulously researched, personal and illuminating read. If it’s not grueling at times you may have a missing piece but it’s worth it, beginning to end. Not recommended if you for some reason still have, or would like to keep, any love for the Catholic Church.

Thanks for the Journey "Back to the Future"

This history is a personal account of what my family (Patrick & Letty Blacklock-Hawkins (along with son Jackson 'Jack' Hawkins; Gabriel & Adelphia 'Delphy' West-Butler; Isaac Hawkins; and Ignatius 'Nace' and Bibianna 'Biby' Mahoney-Butler) endured during their enslaved by the Jesuits!

Love, love, the extensive history accounts. It's a stack of receipts so high there is NO WAY one can remain "sleep". The case for #WOKE

I am blown away....

This was a history lesson and possibly a genealogy lesson as well. As an African American Roman Catholic with roots dating back to Maryland around 1775...and a great aunt who was a Roman Catholic Nun in Maryland....I am floored by this book. My family names are Hawkins, Brown, and Butler.....I will be listening to this book again, taking notes, and hitting Ancestory.com for more information. The Church we love so much played part in the destruction of black families through slavery. This book was mind blowing.

Excellent book

Narration was well done
This story is well worth your time. The details and writing make the families come alive. The Jesuits should be ashamed. The families are classy and great people

very interesting

I learned so much from this book about Catholics and Salvery. It makes you think about other families and their story

Well Done

This is my favorite type of history. History that helps to fill in all the things that were intentionally left out of our history classes as children.

This is an engaging, informative read from the perspective of the enslaved families that were destroyed and sold off to save a Jesuit school.

The narration by Karen Murray is lovely; I could listen to her all day.

Jesuit accountability

This wonderfully detailed book compels both national and more specifically Jesuit accountability. The church must confess and atone not in ways that are self-suiting but in ways that suit the people they oppressed.

Not surprising…

…but fundamentally disappointing in the Jesuit response to several hundred years of abuse and enslavement, I have long embraced Catholic education as a Protestant. But the long-standing denial by the church is disheartening. It, at the moment, makes me feel deceived and disappointed…if only in my naivety. I shall not immediately disclose my shattering revelation to my two sons who currently believe in the catholic education system and values as they makes decisions about the education of their children.

The scholarship and attention to detail.

This book demonstrates what can be done when people decide to do something about the harm their ancestors caused and perpetuated. Coming face to face with the wrongs done to generations took courage. I am grateful for that. So much more needs to be said and done. America has great wealth, and I am hope it will pay attention and accept its larger role in slavery. This is a very good beginning !