C. Walker GOLLAR. ”Let Us Go Free”: Slavery and Jesuit Universities in America. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2024. Pp. xvi + 399.  $89.95 hardcover. $29.95 pb. $29.95 ebook. ISBN 9781647123864 pb.  Reviewed by Leo D. LEFEBURE, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057.

The 2017 public apology of the Society of Jesus and Georgetown University for the sale of at least 272 enslaved persons in 1838 has attracted much attention. Gollar places this tragic event in a much longer history of oppression and abuse, dating back to the early days of Jesuits in the colony of Maryland. This volume is an excellent, detailed survey of the history of effects of Jesuit involvement in the owning and sale of enslaved human beings from colonial times to the present.  Gollar draws on thirty years of exhaustive research in historical documents, including extensive Jesuit archives, genealogies, and narratives of enslaved persons, as well as historic interviews with formerly enslaved persons conducted in the 1930s, more recent interviews with descendants of those who were enslaved, and classroom experiences teaching descendants of enslaved persons.  It is sad to note that the perspectives of those who were owned by Jesuits are for the most part not heard due to lack of surviving evidence: at present a letter dated 1833 from an enslaved person, Thomas Brown, to the Maryland Jesuit Provincial, William McSherry,  is the only known extant document from a person who was enslaved by the Jesuits.  The result of this wide-ranging research is a troubling portrait of a history of oppression, coupled with the awareness that the full extent of the suffering will never be known. Gollar suggests that it was much worse than we usually imagine.

Jesuits were prominent owners of enslaved persons in the early history of Maryland colony.  It is not always clear how they acquired these persons, and there is no record of purchases directly from slave traders.  In 1718 Jesuits inherited seventeen enslaved persons from estate of James Carroll, who directed in his will that they teach these persons the Catholic catechism. On occasion Jesuits accepted ownership of an enslaved person as payment for tuition. Jesuits baptized enslaved persons and justified their ownership as assisting these persons to attain to heaven.  By 1765 Jesuits held 192 enslaved workers on their extensive plantations, and it is estimated that enslaved labor contributed more than three quarters of the Jesuits’ income.  Jesuits held a number of enslaved persons who could no longer work, probably honoring family ties and possibly giving more family stability than was usual at that time; nonetheless Jesuits on occasion transferred enslaved persons from one Jesuit site to another or sold them to other owners. 

After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, former Jesuits and their associates continued to own persons in bondage.  When an Irish Catholic priest accused former Jesuits of abusing their enslaved workers, the first US Catholic bishop, the former Jesuit John Carroll, claimed that priests who were owners treated their enslaved workers with “great mildness” (p. 107).   In later years Carroll supported the gradual emancipation of enslaved persons but did not call for abolition. Jesuits throughout early nineteenth-century America relied on enslaved labor to support educational institutions and other ministries. While some Jesuits opposed the institution of slavery, Jesuits continued to benefit from enslaved labor until 1865.

The final portion of this book discusses experiences of Jesuits with formerly enslaved persons and their descendants.  After the Civil War, some Jesuits recognized the potential business skills of the formerly enslaved and tried to help them to achieve financial stability through education. Nonetheless, racism pervaded the Society of Jesus as it did most of American life after the Civil War and into the twentieth century.  In the aftermath of slavery, many of the older generation of Black Catholics did not tell the younger generation of their earlier mistreatment by Jesuits and other Catholics because they did not want to discourage their practice of the Catholic faith. 

Gollar helpfully traces the history of later memories of Jesuits and slavery down to the present day. This is a highly recommended, essential work on a topic of vital importance.