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The 272 by Rachel L. Swarns
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The 272

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The 272 by Rachel L. Swarns
Hardcover $28.00
Jun 13, 2023 | ISBN 9780399590863

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Praise

“Rachel L. Swarns’s The 272 tells the poignant story of the Black families at the heart of early Catholic America. Owned and sold by Jesuit priests, these families fought to hold on to body and soul across generations. Through dogged research and with great insight, Swarns has stitched together a history once torn apart by slavery, distance, and time.”—Adam Rothman, PhD, director of the Georgetown Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies

The 272 is revealing about old sins in the Catholic Church and conclusive at tying American higher education to slavery, but the wonderful part is that Swarns reveals and persuades by telling the story of one Black family across the 1800s—people whose names you learn and lives you follow for three generations, individuals who find their way through the tunnel of enslavement and come out whole.”—Edward Ball, National Book Award–winning author of Slaves in the Family and Life of a Klansman

“Outstanding, exceptional reporting . . . an incredible project of research, deciphering, and storytelling, and a devastating indictment not only of Georgetown but also of the entire Catholic Church.”—Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Nation Under Our Feet and A Nation Without Borders

“This is a deeply researched and passionately told story that speaks to our ongoing need to confront the legacy of America’s original sin of slavery.”—James M. O’Toole, author of The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America

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