Slavery and the Early Sulpician Community in Maryland

In the 1790s, members of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice (known as the Sulpicians) immigrated to the United States. The Sulpicians devoted themselves to the formation and education of the clergy, establishing a seminary in Baltimore and later in Emmitsburg, Maryland. At the founding of their seminary in Baltimore, they interacted with persons of color. They began ministering to the black Catholic community (principally Hatian refugees) in the seminary's chapel and also rented the enslaved as domestic workers for the seminary. In 1793, to assist the Sulpicians financially, the former Jesuits in Maryland loaned them, for about six years, a large farm in Cecil County, where many more enslaved individuals lived and worked under Sulpician supervision. In 1809, the Sulpicians moved their minor seminary program to Emmitsburg, Maryland, and, as an endowment for this new institution, purchased a large farm there, along with its human property. Even after the seminary in Emmitsburg and the community in Baltimore were separated in 1826, some of the enslaved continued to reside and work at the Baltimore campus, at least until 1840. This article will investigate the Sulpicians' historical connections to slavery and reflect on its implications for the community, arguing that the Sulpicians' early survival and success in the U.S. depended significantly on the labor of enslaved men, women, and children.