*In Person* EX LIBRIS: The 272 with Rachel Swarns

The Providence Athenaeum enriches the mind, inspires the spirit, and elevates public discourse.As an independent, member-supported library and cultural center located on Providence’s historic Benefit Street, the library has welcomed illustrious writers, spirited thinkers, and intellectual community members through its doorsover its nearly 200 years of existenceto engage in reading, conversation, and debate.

Providence Athenæum

Journalist Rachel Swarns on The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church

The Providence Athenæum

The EX LIBRIS program series from the Providence Athenæum features an array of humanities scholars, authors, historians, and thought leaders to illuminate fascinating topics and inspire the intellectually curious. EX LIBRIS programs take place at the Athenæum in front of a live studio audience and are simulcast via Zoom, as well as recorded.This is the IN-PERSON event. In-person $5 tickets are exclusively available to members and their guests. They include access to a pre-program reception from 5-5:30pm and a post-program book sale, if applicable. Please note in-person programs have very limited capacity and are likely to sell out quickly. To register for the virtual simulcast, please click <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-ex-libris-the-272-with-rachel-swarns-tickets-790405523197" title="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-ex-libris-the-272-with-rachel-swarns-tickets-790405523197" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a>.In 1838, a group of America’s most prominent Catholic priests sold 272 enslaved people to save their largest mission project, what is now Georgetown University. The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church, journalist, author, and professor Rachel Swarns follows one family through nearly two centuries of indentured servitude and enslavement to uncover the harrowing origin story of the Catholic Church in the United States. Through the saga of the Mahoney family, Swarns illustrates how the Church relied on slave labor and slave sales to sustain its operations and to help finance its expansion. The family’s descendants would remain apart until Swarns’s reporting in The New York Times finally reunited them. They would go on to join other GU272 descendants who pressed Georgetown and the Catholic Church to make amends, prodding the institutions to break new ground in the movement for reparations and reconciliation in America.This event is presented as part of the Expansive Histories of the Early Americas, in partnership with the <a href="https://jcblibrary.org/" title="https://jcblibrary.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">John Carter Brown Library</a>.-Rachel Swarns is the author of The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. She is a contributing writer for The New York Times, where she previously spent 22 years as a full-time correspondent and served as their Johannesburg bureau chief. She is an associate professor at New York University and has been elected to the Society of American Historians.

The Athenæum's Spring 2024 Season is generously sponsored by the following friends and partners:

In Person EX LIBRIS: The 272 with Rachel Swarns

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