The Jesuits' slaves and HC's dependence on these slaves

I like the book and the fact that this topic is being aired out. But in wording of the announcement, I wonder how the Jesuits "enslaved" these 272 people. I do not believe they actually captured free Blacks and enslaved them...or did they? The phrase "enslaved by the Jesuits" is a bit unclear. It might be more correct to say "held by the Jesuits" or "owned by the Jesuits." Of course neither phrase, no matter how correct it may be, does anything to make this story acceptable.

Whatever Vince and TPTB say they are. Probably much more will be said than done. It is easy to identify rightful victims but when they are all dead it gets murky. A voluntary check-off to add a surcharge to all current donations, similar to the MA State Income Tax 5.85% option for those who wish to give more could target the proceeds to distant relatives of the victims identified by the Jesuit Genealogy Service.

The cupboard is bare for the Irish seeking reparations from the British. Ireland has a higher standard of living than the UK now I believe.

Thanks for helping me to get up to date on correct speech. I guess anyone who "owned" an enslaved person was an enslaver as well as those who made the institution possible (sailors on ships that carried slaves, for one example). Would that also apply to those Africans who captured members of rival tribes and sold them into slavery to start the process?  What would be the obligations of those African tribes today?

Regarding obligations...there are both legal and ethical obligations. Do the people of this country, many of whom are descended from families that were not in North America at any time during the period of slavery, owe for something they never did? Of course not. However, there is IMHO an ethical obligation to offer something to descendents of these people that can be a symbolically important way to start acknowledging what was done to innocent people. 

I've always wondered if there is some sort of ethical obligation owed by families descended from enslaved persons to the descendants of Union soldiers killed or grievously injured in the war to end slavery. While slavery (still ongoing in parts of the world) has been around for thousands of years (if not more) it is highly unusual in human history for mass numbers of free men to die in an effort to stamp it out.   

Without the suppression of the Jesuits in France (1761-64) partly as a consequence of their commercial enterprises in the West Indies there would be no college in Worcester named Holy Cross.

These commercial enterprises produced high-value agricultural products which were shipped to France. The enterprises consisted of large plantations relying on slave labor. The number of slaves was far greater than those held by the Maryland province. (Archaeological digs at these plantations have unearthed iron neck collars.)

Jesuit missionaries at the time acted as representatives of both the Holy See and the French king. They counterbalanced efforts by the English king and Protestant Britain in the exploration and conquest of North America.

With the Jesuits suppressed, the French king and the Holy See turned to ordinary French priests as their replacements,. One such priest was Claude Bouchard de la Poterie, who arrived in Boston in 1788. Abbe Burchard said the first Catholic mass in Massachusetts, and perhaps in all of New England.

thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/west-boston/the-west-end-hosts-the-first-catholic-service-in-boston/

When Abbe Bouchard arrived in Boston, he had brought with him a relic of the True Cross. (The relic is a fraud, but that's another story.) Abbe Bouchard subsequently proceeded to establish the first Catholic church in Boston, which he named the Church of the Holy Cross, and intended that the church be a place where a relic of the True Cross could be venerated.

Fenwick chose to name the College of the Holy Cross after the Church [Cathedral] of the Holy Cross.

That is an interesting point. But slavery, while a factor in the war and the reason why some men joined to fight in the War, it was not the primary cause of the War Between the States so that is a very different situation. 

They ran very large sugar plantations, and also refined the sugar.  They apparently also traded in spices.  These commercial enterprises provided substantial  financial support for the Jesuit system of education in the province of Paris.  The Jesuits were particularly interested in educating children of the middle class, or upper middle class.  This cost money, and records of the accounts for the province reveal that this effort at educational outreach, so to speak, was hemorrhaging francs.

In the course of the Seven Years War (French and Indian War on this side of the pond) the British navy captured ten ships that had sailed from the West indies with their cargo of sugar.  This cargo was already under contract to French merchants, who had already paid the Jesuits for it.  The money received for the cargo of sugar had been spent, and now the Jesuits were in commercial breach, having neither the sugar, nor the money to repay the merchants.  This was not the only factor that led to their suppression in France, but it was a major factor.    

A recent article in "America" on the Jesuit plantations in Haiti.  These seem to have existed only to support the Jesuit mission in that country.
www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/06/17/jesuits-slavery-haiti-plantations-243171

Serious historians (yes, they are "modern") would not agree with your Wikipedia statement. BTW, few use Wikipedia as a serious source for anything. Some entries are good but many are weak or even outright wrong.

Wow! Interesting story, especially for someone with majority French lineage (me).

Modern historians consider this list convincing evidence regarding the centrality of the issue of slavery to the Civil War.