Some New Slave Databases + a Few Classic Ones for Research

Our inbox has been full of news about exciting databases where we can learn more about slaves – where they are buried, who owned them and much more.  Additionally, we have been reminded what a great resource Afrigeneas is – the Facebook page for that organization has been humming recently with news.  A few other great resources that jump to mind are then listed.

And, remember, any database about slaves is also, at a certain level, a database about slave owners and vice-versa.  Learning about everyone who was involved with slavery benefits all research!

Burial Database Project of Enslaved African American Ancestors (Fordham University) – for this project you can both learn about slave burying grounds and also submit information about such. 

Help us identify, document and memorialize burial grounds of enslaved African Americans. Burial grounds of enslaved African Americans are disappearing from the American landscape, taking with them history, heritage and a people's place in the world. You can help us protect these sacred places.

Legacies of British Slave Ownership (University College London)

Colonial slavery shaped modern Britain and we all still live with its legacies. The slave-owners were one very important means by which the fruits of slavery were transmitted to metropolitan Britain. We believe that research and analysis of this group are key to understanding the extent and the limits of slavery's role in shaping British history and leaving lasting legacies that reach into the present. The stories of enslaved men and women, however, are no less important than those of slave-owners, and we hope that the encyclopaedia produced in the first phase of the project, while at present primarily a resource for studying slave-owners, will also provide information of value to those researching enslaved people.

Afrigeneas and Afrigeneas Facebook Page

A site devoted to African American genealogy, to researching African Ancestry in the Americas in particular and to genealogical research and resources in general. It is also an African Ancestry research community featuring the AfriGeneas mail list, the AfriGeneas message boards and daily and weekly genealogy chats

Select slightly older and yet neat databases about slaves and slavery are:

• Digital Library on American Slavery
• Unknown No Longer (VA Historical Society) (Upfront with NGS post about, http://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/2011/09/unknown-no-longer-database-of-virginia.html)
• Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938 (Library of Congress)
• Slave Biographies: Atlantic Database Network (Upfront with NGS post about, http://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/2011/09/exciting-new-project-biographies.html )

Do you know of another recently announced or “classic” African-American research resource?  Please do share and post a comment!

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