Michigan State University has announced that it will be establishing a massive online database relating to the slave trade in the Americas. The new online hub will link archival collections on the slave trade from several major universities. As a result, users will be able to search through millions of records at one central source. Users will be able to create tables, graphics, charts, and maps using the data.
Walter Hawthorne, professor and chair of the department of history at Michigan State University said that the new online resource “brings new digital tools and analytical approaches to the study of African slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. By linking data compiled by some of the world’s foremost historians, it will allow scholars and the public to learn about individuals’ lives and to draw new, broad conclusions about processes that had an indelible impact on the world.”
The project – Enslaved: The People of the Historic Slave Trade – was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
