Posted on 07/14/2021 7:50:51 PM PDT by marshmallow
Vickie White Nelson, 49, has deep roots in southern Maryland. Her ancestor, Regis Gough, was enslaved there on a plantation owned by Jesuits.
RNS) — Vickie White Nelson, 49, has deep roots in southern Maryland. Her ancestor, Regis Gough — her mother’s great-great-grandfather — was enslaved on a plantation there owned by Jesuits and is listed among the Georgetown University 272, a list of enslaved persons the Jesuits sold to Louisiana plantations. But for some mysterious reason, Gough escaped being shipped west.
“He was supposed to earn his freedom after 12 years, but he did not,” Nelson said.
Nelson has been volunteering, along with several other descendants of the GU272, at an archaeological dig on the former plantation where Gough was enslaved. St. Inigoes, in St. Mary’s County in southern Maryland, is close to two other plantations, Newtown and Bohemia. Historians believe enslaved workers moved between these plantations fluidly.
Nelson has observed excavations at Newtown plantation before, she said, but this one at St. Inigoes was different.
“I liked this dig,” said Nelson, who spent three hours one morning shoveling and sifting through the dirt for artifacts. “They actually let us participate.”
It was a moving experience, she said.
“I was able to walk the walk of my ancestors, to see something they saw, touch something they may have touched,” said Nelson.
The two-week dig, which began June 28 at St. Inigoes, is being led by two anthropology professors, Laura Masur, of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and Steve Lenik, of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Masur said their goal for the dig was to find a former chapel on the site and, if possible, the former slave quarters. But the houses where the enslaved workers lived, Masur said, are difficult to find.
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
Take the time to examine the origins and history of the Jesuits.
Why are no descendants of white slaves asked for comment?
Good question, although we here mostly know the answer.
People forget that the widely used term ‘Slavic’ comes from the word Slave. Many Europeans were enslaved by Muslims in Spain back in the 9th Century.
Most ethnic groups have been enslaved by others at one time or another through the course of history.
I’m part English and part Irish. Guess I’d have to write myself a check.
Actually the word “slave” comes from the ethnic term Slav, because so many Slavs were enslaved in the Middle Ages. But people who speak a Slavic language today or are aware of Slavic ancestry would be descended from the more fortunate Slavs of that period who were not enslaved (and the enslavers were not necessarily Muslims but they often sold their captives to Muslims).
St. Mary’s College of Maryland is a public university, named after the city where it is located. You would assume from the name that it was a Catholic college.
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