rachel swarns for the 72, the families who were enslaved and sold to the american catholic church in 1838, a group of america's most prominent catholic. sold 272 enslaved people to their largest mission project, which is now georgetown university. in this groundbreaking, professor swarns follows family through nearly two centuries of indentured and enslavement to uncover the harrowing origin story of, the catholic church in the united states. rachel swarns is a journalist author and associate professor of journalism at new york university, who writes about race and race relations as a contributing for the new york times. her articles about georgetown university's roots in slavery touched off a national conversation about america's universities and their ties to this painful period history. her work has recognized and supported by national endowment for the humanities, the four door ford foundation, the leon levy center for biography, the biographers international organized asian, among others. as a correspondent for the times, swarns reported from russia, guatemala and, southern afri