“What We Inherit” exhibit at St. Thomas traces 1838 Jesuit slave sale and the work of repair

When The New York Times published a front-page story in 2016 about the Jesuits’ sale of enslaved people to fund Georgetown University, Monique Trusclair Maddox thought it was a fascinating piece of history. Then she learned it was her family’s history.

“I thought it was just a really interesting story. But then I came to know that it was directly my ancestors,” said Maddox, an Edina resident and president and CEO of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation. “And so, how would I resolve this history in my mind and in the church?”

That question is at the heart of “What We Inherit: Truth, Repair, and a Promise to the Future,” a traveling exhibit from the foundation on display through Nov. 5 at the University of St. Thomas’ Iversen Center for Faith in St. Paul. The free exhibit traces the 1838 sale of 314 enslaved men, women and children by the Jesuits of Maryland to plantation owners in Louisiana, and follows the work of repair descendants and Jesuits are building together today.

The foundation brought the exhibit to St. Thomas in partnership with the university’s Racial Justice Initiative.

“This is an American story,” Maddox said.

Dr. Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative, said the partnership was a natural fit for the initiative, which began six years ago with a focus on historical recovery.

“It’s a much broader story in terms of the long shadow of slavery, racial inequality and how we address that,” Williams said. “The first step is in confronting the history. That’s partly what this exhibit is about. The next step is moving toward reconciliation.”

What makes the story unique, he said, is that the Jesuits and descendants have moved from confronting the history to working on repair.

Visitors can choose one of three ancestors and follow that person’s life through the exhibit. Williams said that personal approach is what resonates most with him.

“No matter who you choose, whether you choose it from the perspective of a young child who survived this or the other two descendants who are represented, it’s an opportunity for us to think about the legacy that we’re leaving,” he said.

Faculty across the university, not just in the history department, are encouraging students to visit, Williams said.

“It wasn’t just a question of emancipation, and that was it,” he said. “You have large-scale institutions that were built on the financial gain from slavery.”

For Maddox, uncovering the history meant finally understanding her own family. She had started a family tree several times before 2016 but never finished it. After learning about the sale, she said she couldn’t let it go.

“I feel like it’s a gift to my daughter to know her ancestral background, to know how interrelated our families were,” she said.

Maddox said slavery separated families again and again, as people were moved in and out of plantations. In the small community where she grew up, there had long been whispers that her parents were related, through the Butler and Hawkins families on both sides. Her research and DNA testing confirmed it. About every three generations, she said, her family tree shows the same families reconnecting.

She said the research isn’t easy.

“It’s a really hard read to see the price in the enslaved records, the dollar amount that was put on your family members,” Maddox said. “But it’s also a struggle that once you get beyond the shock and pain and anger and anxiety, there’s beauty in the end.”

As a Catholic, Maddox said, the history was especially painful. When she first learned it, she went to her priest, who asked what she was going to do. She went to the adoration chapel and prayed week after week, and she said it took years to forgive the people who enslaved her ancestors. Today she remains active at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Edina and said her priest and archbishop have supported her.

“This is a story of forgiveness. This is a story of healing, and that’s what we want people to take away from this exhibit,” she said.

Nolan Stewart of Battle Creek, Michigan, is a seventh-generation descendant of Isaac Hawkins, one of the people sold in 1838. His grandfather, Joe Stewart, helped found the foundation and spent years researching the family’s history.

“Ever since I was a kid, he was telling me about how important my history is, and to never forget where I came from,” Stewart said. “I kind of blew that off as a kid because I just wanted to eat ice cream and do kid things.”

As he grew older and learned about slavery in school, Stewart said, his grandfather’s stories took on deeper meaning. He was among the first recipients of the foundation’s scholarship, which helped him graduate from Northern Michigan University. He now works at a hospital.

“I hope a lot of people will get that same realization, not only about my family, but maybe their family or their friends’ family, or just in general about this country,” he said.

The Racial Justice Initiative will host a closing conversation, “Facing History: Memory, Reconciliation, and the Common Good,” as part of its Finding Forward series Nov. 2, featuring Maddox, Williams and St. Thomas President Rob Vischer.

“Come and see it,” Maddox said.

How to visit

“What We Inherit: Truth, Repair, and a Promise to the Future” is on display through Nov. 5 at the Iversen Center for Faith, University of St. Thomas, Cleveland Avenue North and Ashland Avenue in St. Paul. The exhibit is free and open to the public 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Nov. 2 in the OEC Auditorium. Registration is available through the Racial Justice Initiative.

Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.