喬治城和奴隸制度的罪惡 Georgetown and the Sin of Slavery

The New York Times

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD APRIL 23, 2016

奴隸制度的賠款運動，要求補償250年前被奴役的美國人的後代，因為許多理由無法獲得認同。

The reparations movement, which calls for compensating the descendants of generations of enslaved Americans going back 250 years, has failed to gain traction in this country for a variety of reasons.

大部分美國人看待奴隸制度，如同遙遠時期的一件神器，不適合現今的國家。即使人們同情賠款的想法— 他們了解到奴隸制度在社會的印記是持續的 — 他們還是經常爭辯沒有辦法分辨要求補償的人，誰是奴隸的後代，這部分是因為被奴役的人，在美國的人口調查通常沒有姓名，他們沒有呈現在歷史紀錄中。

Most Americans see slavery as an artifact of the distant past that has no bearing on the nation’s present. And even people who are sympathetic to the reparations idea — and who acknowledge the continued imprint of slavery on society — have often argued that there is no way to distinguish descendants who have provable claims to compensation from those who do not, partly because enslaved people usually went unnamed in the United States census, which rendered them faceless in the historical record.

銀行家、商人和製造商，都從奴隸買賣中獲利，投保的奴隸船和貨物的公司也有獲利。有超過一打的大學承認曾與奴隸制度有關聯。還有一些人發現，它們早期建立的歷史中，奴隸扮演一定的角色。

Bankers, merchants and manufacturers all profited from the slave trade, as did companies that insured slaving ships and their cargo. And more than a dozen universities have acknowledged ties to slavery. Even so, some will find ways to paper over the role that slavery played in their founding and early history.

Rachel Swarns 最近在時代雜誌說，沒有人能夠否認喬治城大學慘痛的奴隸史。 在1838年，天主教耶穌會管理的喬治城學院，賣掉 272 名非洲裔美國人、女人與小孩，讓他們到南方的甘蔗種植園過地獄般的生活，以資助學院持續運作。 這部分的事實是沒有爭議的。

Such denials are impossible in the harrowing history of slavery at Georgetown University that Rachel Swarns recounted recently in The Times. In 1838, the Jesuits running the college that became Georgetown sold 272 African-American men, women and children into a hellish life on sugar plantations in the South to finance the college’s continued operation. On that fact, there is no dispute.

耶穌會士販賣奴隸證明，奴隸制度的規模龐大，以及奴隸制度與美國最頂尖的天主教大學的財富，有直接關係。 從馬里蘭耶穌會種植園運送到新奧爾良的奴隸名單已經公布。這批奴隸有部分的後代已經發現這起歷史上最嚴重的侵犯人權罪行，因此這是必須面對的特殊情況。

The sale by the Jesuits stands out for its sheer size and the directness of its relationship to the existence and fortunes of one of the country’s top Catholic universities. The names of the people who were taken from the Jesuit plantations in Maryland and shipped to New Orleans are known. The fact that some of their descendants have already been found makes this a particularly salient case in the emerging effort to confront one of history’s worst crimes against humanity.

喬治城大學在道義上必須採取補償措施，補償措施應當包括，對奴隸後代提供獎學金，這些奴隸被販賣，賣得的錢拯救喬治城大學這個機構。

Georgetown is morally obligated to adopt restorative measures, which should clearly include a scholarship fund for the descendants of those who were sold to save the institution.

許多人了解到耶穌會是美國最大的奴隸所有者，可能會嚇了一大跳。歷史學家Craig Steven Wilder，在即將出版的新書「奴隸制度的資本主義：美國經濟發展的新歷史」裡說明，在殖民時代天主教教會參與奴隸制度。 Wilder教授寫奴隸種植園的收入，讓天主教有資源抵抗殖民時期的迫害，讓教會在美國革命與其他不知名的迫害下生存。

Many people may be startled to learn that the Jesuits were among the largest slaveholders in the nation. But as the historian Craig Steven Wilder notes in the forthcoming book “Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development,” the Catholic Church was fully involved with slavery in the colonial period. Professor Wilder writes that income from slave plantations gave Catholics the resources to resist colonial-era persecution, allowed the church to survive through the American Revolution and underwrote the church’s expansion.

到耶穌會種植園的遊客，包括在1820年參觀馬里蘭的愛爾蘭教士，紀錄暴力侵害奴隸的歷史。部分人士敦促教會釋放它的奴隸。但是，如同Wilder教授所寫，「耶穌會沒有選擇放棄蓄奴，相反地，他們在路易西安那州採購奴隸之後，向西擴展種植園的奴隸制度，藉由這個方式，主教們建立教會。」

Visitors to the Jesuit plantations, including an Irish priest who visited Maryland in 1820, documented the violence against the enslaved. Some urged the church to get rid of its slaves. But as Professor Wilder writes, “Rather than retreating from slaveholding, the bishops built their church by tracking the westward expansion of plantation slavery” after the Louisiana Purchase.

在喬治城大學，奴隸制度與學術有著千絲萬縷的聯繫。大學仰賴奴隸種植園的收入支付學校的運作。當學校無法陷入麻煩，販賣非裔美國人、女人與小孩，可以解除毀滅。

At Georgetown, slavery and scholarship were inextricably linked. The college relied on its plantations to help pay for its operations. When the school fell into trouble, the sale of the African-American men, women and children staved off its ruin.

如果耶穌會沒有紀錄他們的名字，喬治城的黑人家庭可能早已失去歷史。有這些資訊在手上，非營利組織「喬治城記憶計畫」開始追蹤這些黑奴家庭存活的後代。這項計畫所使用的統計模型是，原本272名奴隸，存活下來的後代，人數約有12,000到15,000人。

The black Georgetown families might have been lost to history had the Jesuits not recorded their names. With that information in hand, a nonprofit group called the Georgetown Memory Project has begun tracking down living descendants of these families. The statistical model used by the project estimates that there are 12,000 to 15,000 living descendants of the original 272 enslaved people.

去年秋季，因為學生抗議，所以喬治城大學將二名神父的名字從校園建築移除，因為，這二名神父負責安排出售黑奴。此外，由學生、校友、教授和其他人組成的大學工作團隊，正在研究如何讓大學理解、記憶和修改這段歷史。

Following student protests last fall, the university removed from two campus buildings the names of the two priests who arranged the sale. In addition, a university working group made up of students, alumni, professors and others are studying ways for the university to acknowledge, memorialize and make amends for this history.

Richard Cellini是建立記憶計畫的喬治城大學的校友，他告訴部分奴隸的後代 他們家族的歷史，他們當眾痛哭，奴隸家族歷史過去一度是個秘密。自從理解到19世紀傳教士的殘酷歷史，部分天主教徒經歷信仰危機。 Cellini先生說，他接觸的黑奴後代，沒有一個人曾經提到金錢或補償。

According to Richard Cellini, the Georgetown alumnus who established the memory project, some of the descendants wept openly when they were told of family histories that had been a mystery to them. As Catholics, some have experienced crises of faith since learning of the brutality of the 19th-century priests. None of the descendants he has spoken with have mentioned money or reparations for themselves, Mr. Cellini said.

奴隸的後代希望他們的祖先能以穩固的方式被社會了解。部分奴隸的後代希望看到校園有永恆的紀念物，榮耀曾被奴役的家庭，其中一個後代說，讓「真正的人，有真正的名字」。喬治城大學開始歡迎奴隸的後代，進入校園，傾聽他們的建議。

The descendants want their ancestors recognized in a durable way. Some would like to see a permanent memorial on campus that honors the enslaved families, one descendant said, as “real people with real names.” Georgetown can begin by welcoming the descendants into the university family and listening to their suggestions.