‘It stops you cold’: the 272 enslaved people sold to fund Georgetown

The descendants of Ann Joice, separated as part of the sale, are at the center of a vital new work of history and journalism

In 1676, a Black teenager named Ann Joice arrived on the shores of Maryland with hopes of a new life.

She had traveled to the recently founded colony from England, destined for indentured servitude, and worked as a maid for the ruling Calvert family, who for three generations had presided over Maryland as a religious haven for Catholics fleeing persecution in England.