The Hoya: The Guide: January 30, 2015

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the guide FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015

Built by Slaves and Jesuits Georgetown’s past is mired in the institution of slavery

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

During the 19th century, Washington, D.C., underwent extensive changes in its social and political fabric. To the left, an unidentified group of Civil War soldiers look across the Potomac River to the simple landscape of Georgetown’s campus. To the right, black District residents celebrate the national abolition of slavery that occured just months before.

SUZANNE MONYAK Hoya Staff Writer

Established in 1789, Georgetown University is an institution 226 years in the making. From its more historic buildings like Healy Hall and Old North to its newer additions like the Rafik B. Hariri Building and Regents Hall, the campus flows with longstanding tradition mixed with modern change. In its post-Revolutionary War years, the makeup of Georgetown’s community was far from diverse. Populated by Jesuits and an all-male, white, Christian student body, and supported by plantations run on African slave labor, Georgetown was indeed a product of its time. Yet, as the university battled with perpetual debt and the changing tide of public opinion in the beginning of the 19th century, its own perspective gradually shifted. Slowly, the racial paradigm transformed and the long-held institution of slavery collapsed from the top down, fusing the fate of African culture and the Jesuit tenets held by the university in dynamic and completely unexpected ways. *** In the mid-17th century, Spanish and French Jesuits travelled to several of the colonies on

missions of religious conversion. Forced out of a Protestant England that denied it property rights and banned Catholic clerical study, the order did not receive a warmer welcome on American soil. At the time, Maryland, although founded as a Catholic haven, was also primarily Protestant, and the Catholic population made up the small elite. To maintain peace between the two, in 1633, Cecil Calvert, the founder of the Maryland colony, asked its Catholic inhabitants to move their religious practices out of the public eye and onto private landholdings. These manors and plantations became havens of religious freedom and acceptance. By the end of the 17th century, these plantation-owning Jesuits began employing African slave labor as white indentured servitude was legally phased out by the Assembly. In doing so, they were entering into a system of Maryland trade that had begun in 1642 with the arrival of the first group of African slaves in St. Mary’s City. *** For the Jesuits, slaveholding was a means of affirming their right to property within the confines of a Protestant-dominated society. The Compromise of 1642 dictated that the Jesuits could own land as individuals but not as a recognized order, and after 1689, they had been barred from

holding public office. As modern African-American studies historian Thomas Murphy, S.J., puts it, slavery was an institution that signified “the assertion of their own right and the right of Catholic layman in the colony to be accorded the full rights of English subjects.” Slave owning was also seen as a push for religious liberty — an extension of their Jesuit mission and an opportunity to spread Catholicism. By owning slaves, Jesuits believed they were protecting them from crueler Protestant slaveholders, who often denied their slaves the sacrament of baptism. Jesuit slave owners raised their slaves Catholic and allowed them to be baptized, receive the Eucharist and marry. Jesuits believed that slaveholding brought them closer to God, using Loyola’s “Spiritual Exercises” as justification and inspiration for slaveholding practices. Beneath these well-intentioned beliefs was a dogged adherence to the racial status quo. Maryland Jesuit Br. Joseph P. Mobberley S.J., addressed the issue of religion and slavery in an essay he wrote in 1818. He, like many other Jesuit slave owners at the time, saw the abolitionist See SLAVERY, B2

GILBERT STUART

John Carroll founded Georgetown University in 1789. He owned more than 100 slaves.

THIS WEEK FEATURE

LIFESTYLE

A Cappella on the Hilltop The Chimes host the 42nd annual Cherry Tree Massacre MADISON STINGRAY Hoya Staff Writer

Social Media Empowers Identity

“Exposure: Redefined” is a photography webiste launched by the Asian American Student Association of Georgetown. B3

FOOD & DRINK

American Cuisine Reinvented

The recently opened Second State restaurant adds a flavorful twist to traditional American staple foods. B5

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

An Unwitting War Hero Stanislav Petrov’s riveting actions during the Cold War are explored in a documentary. B6

THEHOYA.COM/ GUIDE @thehoyaguide

The stoic and hallowed space of Gaston Hall will be filled with music as Georgetown’s a cappella singers gather to share the stage and kick off the 42nd annual Cherry Tree Massacre on Jan. 30. Hosted by the Georgetown Chimes, the Cherry Tree Massacre has become a university tradition, a piece of history that continues into the present for three weekends within the open doors of Healy this January and February. With different sets of performers each night from Georgetown’s finest singers, this is the perfect opportunity to slip away from the cold winter nights and thaw yourself beside a collection of musical classics, favorites and a cappella twists. Since its conception, the Chimes has hosted this show, the largest collegiate a cappella festival on the east coast. “It was started by a neophyte of the Chimes who realized that the Chimes had this tremendous amount of debt incurred that they needed to pay on their bar tabs, and so they decided to have the Cherry Tree Massacre,” Chimes #243 Connor Joseph (COL ’16) said.

What began as a fun way to raise money for spirituous debt has since turned into one of the most important and loved traditions at Georgetown, a way to raise actual spirits and provide a short escape from the realities of papers and exams. “Sometimes at Georgetown it can be really easy to get caught up in assignments and day-today tasks, and singing is a respite from that. There’s something transcendental about music, and it’s great that we can come out and escape from that really stressful Georgetown experience,” Joseph said. The Cherry Tree Massacre is a chance to come together as a community and appreciate the immense talent that Georgetown has to offer. Nestled between the stained glass windows, with John Carroll keeping watch out front, these four shows will offer a shared connection for all students to a legacy that was created here on campus and has only grown with each passing decade. To all involved, the show is far more than a one-way performance; it’s an interaction between the singers and the audience as they enjoy each other’s company and appreciate the wealth of creativity that thrives on the Hilltop. “I’m always excited to see the

FILE PHOTO: REBECCA GOLDBERG/THE HOYA

Members of the Chimes gather every year in Healy Hall to present their popular a cappella concert, the Cherry Tree Massacre. audience’s reaction; I like putting a smile on people’s faces when it all comes together. It’s great to see that people are enjoying what we actually do, and to watch them clap and smile,” Chimes #238 Charlie Plissner (COL ’15), the Ephus, said. The intimate setting and familiar faces already make

this event special, but realizing that it has been going on long before any one of us crossed through those crested gates and stepped foot on campus is almost unbelievable. So what gives the Cherry Tree Massacre its ability to remain strong year after year? It is See CHIMES, B4


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