Did their school have ties to slavery? Now students try to make sense of the answer

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Did their school have ties to slavery? Now students try to make sense of the answer



Gonzaga College High School students, clockwise from top center, Jack Boland, Daniel Podratsky, Jack Brown, Hameed Nelson and Joe Boland and Matthew Johnson, not pictured, conducted research over the summer that discovered their school's historical ties to slavery. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

By Rachel Siegel September 25

The boy’s name was Gabriel, and he was a slave. Once, he was tipped less than seven cents for weeding the garden at the Washington Seminary in Northwest Washington. Another time, he was given 12 cents for reasons unknown.

Any knowledge of Gabriel was lost until six students from Gonzaga College High School — the later incarnation of Washington Seminary — decided to research their school’s history and its potential ties to slavery. They spent two weeks this past summer mining archival material, their quest mirroring research conducted previously at Georgetown University and other schools that had discovered their institutions bore the stain of slavery.

That earlier research showed how Georgetown had profited from Jesuit-owned plantations that thrived across the region. What about our school, the Gonzaga students wondered. Did it, too, benefit from, and help sustain, the global slave trade of the 19th century?

They found their answers: Profit from those plantations was funneled to Washington Seminary, which at the time was part of Georgetown. And two slaves — Gabriel and another named Isaih — worked at the school for an unknown period of time.
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Rachel graduated from Yale and is a reporting intern on the local politics team. Follow @rachsieg

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At a D.C. school with ties to slavery, a pledge to recognize 'past sinfulness'

By Rachel Siegel September 26 at 2:51 PM

A D.C. high school’s historical ties to slavery must be acknowledged as its students and the country grapple with the legacy of racism, said the school’s president.

The Rev. Stephen Planning of Gonzaga College High School wrote a statement posted on the school’s website Tuesday imploring community members to recognize the school’s “past sinfulness” and its modern-day implications. Over the summer, six Gonzaga students conducted research on the institution’s ties to slavery, discovering that Washington Seminary — the earliest incarnation of Gonzaga — benefited from profits generated at Jesuit-run plantations. They also learned that two slaves, identified as Gabriel and Isaih, worked on campus grounds. The Washington Post reported on the discovery Tuesday.

Now left to grapple with this history, Planning encouraged community members not to deny the past, but to face it “with sincere humility.”

“Our past sinfulness matters, both as individuals and institutions,” Planning wrote. “As much as we hate to admit it, our past sinfulness has an impact on who we are today.”
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Rachel graduated from Yale and is a reporting intern on the local politics team. Follow @rachsieg