Trans-Atlantic Slave Database

Abstract

The TransAtlantic Slave Database was initially published on CD-ROM in 1999, and is in the DISC collection. The project has since expanded, and is now online. The Voyages database on the site includes voyages spanning the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, some 35,000 in all. Users can construct queries, select variables to be displayed in tables and downloaded, and view summary statistics, maps, and timelines. The site estimates that only four-fifths of slave voyages were actually documented, and provides an interactive page for further examining and fine-tuning estimates. The site also includes an African Names database of over 67,000 individuals aboard slave ships, a small portion of the over ten million Africans who were forcibly brought to the Americas but of great interest to genealogists.

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