Edward Fenwick: First Bishop of Cincinnati and Slaveholder

Abstract

Maryland-born Dominican Father Edward Fenwick (1768–1832), a descendant of wealthy American Catholics, used inherited and acquired slaves to establish St. Rose Priory in Springfield, Kentucky, the first Dominican house in the United States. Fenwick's ministry extended beyond the South into the free state of Ohio, where he spent the last twenty years of his life. By the time he was consecrated the first bishop of Cincinnati in 1822, Fenwick had little contact with slaves. When he opened St. Francis Xavier Seminary in 1829 and the College of the Athenaeum in 1831, Fenwick was no longer a slaveholder. As a result, biographies of Fenwick largely downplay, if not ignore, his slaveholding experience. Careful research into his life, however, reveals that the institution of slavery influenced his ecclesiastical career.