who has undergraduate and law degrees
from Georgetown.
His interest was sparked by student protests on
campus over the slave sale. University folklore
held that all of them died soon after the sale, a
conclusion he refused to accept because it didn’t
make sense.
“Even the Titanic had survivors,” he said, stressing
that his research was independent and received
no funding from the university.
The university has, however, done its own
research into the sale and the fate of the slaves
in a project started in the 1990s. Archived
documents include a letter detailing how Jesuit
priests from Maryland traveled to Louisiana a
decade after the sale in order to understand
the lives of the slaves sold there, according to a
Georgetown spokeswoman.
Cellini hired genealogists who dug into
Louisiana and Maryland records. The ongoing
project has so far located 224 of the slaves and
nearly 8,500 descendants, about 4,000 of whom
are living.
When it came to making the information public,
he knew American Ancestors was the place
to go as what he calls the gold standard of
genealogical research.
Cellini dearly loves his alma mater, but he
acknowledged that the project has shocked
some people.
But he said the slaves deserve a place of honor
in school history.
“Everyone who loves Georgetown should be
proud and grateful to the people who founded
it,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, the slaves
are part of that, and I am grateful and proud of
these families who helped make Georgetown
what it is.”
antfer
(Antfer)
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