This exhibition for Black History Month honors Louisa Mahoney Mason and her Descendants whose Catholic faith endured despite enslavement by the priests who baptized them and segregation within predominantly white parishes during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Mason family served the Jesuits and Catholic Church with loyalty, but their allegiance also stemmed from a deep commitment to their own family and the Black community. The Masons helped establish Black organizations within predominantly white parishes, including Sunday Schools taught by Black men and women, benevolent associations that offered burial assistance and food relief, and sodalities to encourage prayer. This community enabled the Jesuits to maintain a significant Black membership in Maryland.
The Mason Family of St. Inigoes
This photograph is the only known image of people formerly enslaved by the Jesuits in Georgetown University Library’s holdings. Father Brosnan identified this undated image with the caption “St. Inigoes - Bob Mason family + our workman.” A team of archivists, professors, students, and Descendants have deduced that, in addition to Robert Mason (standing right), the photograph includes his mother Louisa Mahoney Mason (seated left), an unidentified woman (seated right), along with a child who remains unidentified.
The Jesuits had enslaved Louisa, who was widowed after her husband Alex Mason was murdered in 1861, and her six children. After their emancipation in November 1864, the family continued to work for the Jesuits at St. Inigoes. By the 1880s, only Louisa and her two youngest children, Robert and Josephine, remained at St. Inigoes, working for the Jesuits and helping to build institutions for Black members within predominantly white and segregated parishes. The other members of her family undertook similar roles in Jesuit parishes in Woodstock, Md.; Baltimore, Md.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Washington, D.C.
Photograph by John Brosnan, S.J., Brosnan Photographic Collection, Woodstock Theological Library
Bill of Sale for 84 enslaved people, November 29, 1838
In this bill of sale executed on November 28, 1838, Louisa Mahoney was listed with other enslaved family and community members whom Thomas Mulledy, S.J., had agreed to sell to Henry Johnson of Louisiana. However, Joseph Carbery, S.J., the Superintendent of St. Inigoes, warned Louisa and her mother, Anna Mahoney, that they would be seized and transported to the slave pens in Alexandria to await a transatlantic voyage to New Orleans. Heeding this warning, Louisa and Anna hid in the woods until the ships left. When they returned to St. Inigoes, Father Carbery welcomed them back. Louisa remained in contact with the members of her family in Louisiana until her death in 1909.
Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus
Detail showing the people from St. Inigoes sold by the Jesuits, including Louisa Mahoney
This bill of sale identifies Louisa by her age of 23 and her plantation of St. Inigoes, but omits her surname and other information that would have recognized her family relationships.
Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus
List of prizes awarded to students of St. Peter Claver’s Sunday School, June 20, 1909
Annual awards given by John Lunny, S.J., to the students of St. Peter Claver Sunday School of St. Alphonsus Church in Woodstock, Md. The list includes two great-grandchildren of Louisa Mahoney Mason: Leon Bennett and Clementine Bennett. Leon’s father, Gabriel Bennett, and Clementine’s father, Daniel Bennett, both worked for Woodstock College.
Diary of St. Peter Claver’s Sunday School, September 1908-June 1914, Woodstock Theological Library
May Queen Helen Bennett and her attendant Geraldine Parker, May 27, 1928
Helen Bennett, the daughter of Gabriel Bennett and great-granddaughter of Louisa Mahoney Mason, was selected Queen of the annual St. Peter Claver May Procession. She is photographed with the crown bearer, Geraldine Parker. The procession also included Helen’s cousins, Marshall Bennett and Joseph Bennett, also great-grandchildren of Louisa Mahoney Mason.
St. Peter Claver Sunday School Diary, 1920-1932, Woodstock Theological Library