The Maryland Jesuits sold 272 people for $115,000 in 1838 to pay Georgetown's debts, and in 2021 the order pledged $100 million to their descendants

The Jesuits of the Maryland Province owned plantations and the people enslaved on them. The province ran Georgetown College, which was in debt. On 19 June 1838 Thomas F. Mulledy signed articles of agreement in Washington selling 272 people to Jesse Beatty and Henry Johnson of Louisiana for $115,000. The buyers paid $25,000 on delivery of the first 51 people. The other $90,000 was on ten years' credit at 6 percent, secured by mortgages on Louisiana land and on the people themselves. Delivery was set at Alexandria between 15 October and 15 November 1838. The children of the women listed were included in the sale. The contract does not promise to keep families together. In 2016 the New York Times traced the sale and the descendants. In 2017 Father Tim Kesicki apologized on behalf of the Jesuits. In March 2021 the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States pledged $100 million toward a $1 billion fund, run with descendants through the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation. In September 2023 Georgetown added $10 million and the Jesuits $17 million, including the value of plantation land, bringing the trust to $42 million.