An Update on Research on Slavery

May 29, 2018

Dear Members of the SLU Community,

I am writing to inform you that Fr. Ronald Mercier, S.J., Provincial of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province, shared an important communication with me and other directors of works in the Province.  It summarizes findings of nearly two years of research into Jesuit slaveholding in and around St. Louis during the early-to-middle 1800s.

As I wrote to you in 2016, faculty, librarians and archivists from SLU and the Province are conducting the research into the history of Jesuit slaveholding. The purpose is clear and compelling.  The full story of slaveholding by Jesuits – including at Saint Louis University – has not yet been discovered and remains to be told.   

The Province communication summarizes what has been found to date and includes the story of one enslaved woman, Mrs. Matilda Tyler.  Mrs. Tyler is known to have been forced to work at St. Louis College, which later became Saint Louis University. The story shares how she was forced to buy her freedom and that of her sons from the Jesuits and the University. It is impossible not to be moved by what Mrs. Tyler endured.

Attached here are the research summary report and the story of Matilda Tyler. 

There were many more enslaved persons who were brought to St. Louis by Jesuits or bought by Jesuits. Some were later owned by Saint Louis University. Their labor helped to build and sustain the University.  We recognize this as a shameful part of the University’s history. It was imperative that we included this history in SLU’s bicentennial book, Always the Frontier: Saint Louis University 1818-2018. That text acknowledges slaveholding and mistreatment of enslaved people by some of SLU’s founders.

To be clear, this research is not complete and will continue.  What has been uncovered is a richer and deeper archive than what we first imagined would be available.

The release of the province’s documents comes when most of our students and many of our faculty are away from campus. I will again send the Provincial’s message at the beginning of the next academic year.  At that point, I will share details of the SLU team working on this project and indicate initial next steps SLU will take to further this essential effort under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Smith. 

It is long past time that the full history of slaveholding be discovered, shared and acted on.

Sincerely,

Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.
President