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bookwyrm76's review
5.0
Well researched and interesting, but it is definitely full of uncomfortable truths. Reading snippets of letters by priests referencing the slaves owned by the church often left me feeling sick, and I am not Catholic. Many details about slavery in MD vs the deep south were new to me.
Important history of the Catholic Church in America and of many of the major universities still open now.
Important history of the Catholic Church in America and of many of the major universities still open now.
crafalsk264's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
In the early 1800s, the Catholic Church sold 272 enslaved people to raise money to support their largest mission project—Georgetown University. The author brings a journalist’s skill to tell the story of one family—the Mahoneys—through three centuries. This epic portrayal of one family’s lives and tragedies illustrates the effect of the slave trade from the 1600s to the current family members. The sale of the 272 men, women and children is especially poignant given that they served and eventually provided funds desperately needed to advance the mission of the Church and the Jesuit Order.
The use of one family’s history to show how the institution of slavery was intertwined with that of the Church and the Nation was effective. Swarns was instrumental in the publicity of the facts that have formed the basis for descendants of the 272 enslaved people who were sold for this purpose to seek remediation for the effects this has had on their lives. Beginning with Ann Joice, a free Black woman, who had her freedom taken away from her in the late 1600s. The author traces her descendants through several family members to Jeremy Alexander who is an executive assistant at Georgetown University. Approximately 6,000 living descendants of the 272 have been identified. This narrative ploy has been used effectively to show how this is living history. Swarns is a compelling storyteller and she has used it to provide a glimpse of a little known history of not just the human characters but also the United States and the Catholic Church. It is an important issue told in an engaging form. Recommend to readers interested in history, religion, race, American history, African American, spirituality and politics.
booksamongstfriends's review
4.0
“Carbery had saved Louisa from being sold, but he could not save her from slavery.”
"The 272" shines a crucial light on the Catholic Church's entanglement in New World slavery, particularly through the harrowing story of the Mahoney family, spanning nearly two centuries of servitude and exploitation.
Swarns traces the lineage of Ann Joice, a free Black woman whose freedom was stolen upon arriving in Maryland as an indentured servant. The Mahoney family, descendants of Ann Joice and later enslaved by Jesuit priests, exemplifies the Church's reliance on slave labor and sales to fund its operations. This deeply researched account reveals how slavery not only sustained the Catholic Church's growth in America but also highlights the enduring legacy of abuse and broken promises endured by enslaved families like the Mahoneys.
I recommend this book as it is a reminder that greed has always been at the forefront. There’s no such thing as a good master when your captivity fuels their capitalism.
When your bondage is to their benefit.
When your imprisonment is to their profit.
This is truly a sad and comprehensive examination the prioritization of profit over humanity. Swarns navigates complex historical narratives with impressive detail, although the sheer volume of names can be overwhelming without a visual aid like a family tree as one of the inserts.
A particularly intriguing aspect is the Church's fear of slaves losing faith, underscoring its vested interest in maintaining control and perpetuating Jesuit beliefs among the enslaved population. In the end they would not only get the money to start Jesuit colleges, but they were able to ensure Jesuit beliefs continued on in the people they enslaved.
Overall, "The 272" is a compelling and necessary read that exposes the deep-seated connections between slavery, religion, and institutional power in American history.
"The 272" shines a crucial light on the Catholic Church's entanglement in New World slavery, particularly through the harrowing story of the Mahoney family, spanning nearly two centuries of servitude and exploitation.
Swarns traces the lineage of Ann Joice, a free Black woman whose freedom was stolen upon arriving in Maryland as an indentured servant. The Mahoney family, descendants of Ann Joice and later enslaved by Jesuit priests, exemplifies the Church's reliance on slave labor and sales to fund its operations. This deeply researched account reveals how slavery not only sustained the Catholic Church's growth in America but also highlights the enduring legacy of abuse and broken promises endured by enslaved families like the Mahoneys.
I recommend this book as it is a reminder that greed has always been at the forefront. There’s no such thing as a good master when your captivity fuels their capitalism.
When your bondage is to their benefit.
When your imprisonment is to their profit.
This is truly a sad and comprehensive examination the prioritization of profit over humanity. Swarns navigates complex historical narratives with impressive detail, although the sheer volume of names can be overwhelming without a visual aid like a family tree as one of the inserts.
A particularly intriguing aspect is the Church's fear of slaves losing faith, underscoring its vested interest in maintaining control and perpetuating Jesuit beliefs among the enslaved population. In the end they would not only get the money to start Jesuit colleges, but they were able to ensure Jesuit beliefs continued on in the people they enslaved.
Overall, "The 272" is a compelling and necessary read that exposes the deep-seated connections between slavery, religion, and institutional power in American history.
siria's review
4.5
The 272 recounts the story of the Mahoneys, an extended family of enslaved and later free Black Americans whose forced labour and eventual sale south to Louisiana were used to fund the construction and expansion of Georgetown University. Rachel Swarns' account of how the Jesuit Order abused generations of people, and justified that abuse to themselves through a kind of pious, racialising paternalism, is an engrossing if often queasy and infuriating read. It's the rare book where you feel like the author didn't need to call out church hypocrisy as much as she did, just because it's so evident on the page.
There were a couple of places where I thought that Swarns' analysis could have dived deeper—either through following the lives of the post-Reconstruction descendants of the Mahoneys, or through contextualising the religious history of these events more—and a couple of points where there are minor historical errors. (Admittedly I'm far more familiar with European forms of Catholicism, but e.g. unless the reforms of Vatican II were anticipated in 19th-century America, Mass was celebrated in Latin, not in the vernacular.)
However, these are reservations which ultimately do not detract from the power and importance of this work, and anyway no one book could be expected to encompass every aspect of this history: of the 272 enslaved people sold by the Jesuits, there are at least 6,000 known living descendants today. Highly recommended.
There were a couple of places where I thought that Swarns' analysis could have dived deeper—either through following the lives of the post-Reconstruction descendants of the Mahoneys, or through contextualising the religious history of these events more—and a couple of points where there are minor historical errors. (Admittedly I'm far more familiar with European forms of Catholicism, but e.g. unless the reforms of Vatican II were anticipated in 19th-century America, Mass was celebrated in Latin, not in the vernacular.)
However, these are reservations which ultimately do not detract from the power and importance of this work, and anyway no one book could be expected to encompass every aspect of this history: of the 272 enslaved people sold by the Jesuits, there are at least 6,000 known living descendants today. Highly recommended.