WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Catholic Church played a vital role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, according to historians and several published thesi is on the topic.
This is how The New York Times first reported the story: The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nation's capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance. But on that day, in the fall of 1838, no one was spared: not the 2-month-old baby and her mother, not the field hands, not the shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins, who was about 13 years old when he was forced onboard.