We are delighted to announce that Oxford researchers now have access to Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World.
This collection provides access to a wide range of materials to help understand the inception of slavery in Africa and its rise as perpetuated on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, with particular focus on the United Kingdom, France, and the United States.
It covers a wide spectrum of subjects related to the history of slavery: legal issues; economics; the Caribbean; children and women under slavery; modes of resistance; and much more, from 1490 to 1896.
Report of the proceedings at the examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on a charge of aiding and abetting in the rescue of a fugitive slave, held in Boston, in February, 1851 / Davis, Charles G. United States. Circuit Court (Massachusetts). Boston : White & Potter, printers, 1851
© Cengage
Sources
Sources include monographs and individual papers, account ledge books, diaries, names of slave ships, lists of captains and crews, details of slave ship seizures as well as description of slave conditions, company records, newspapers, and a variety of government documents.
The resource is also useful for finding European travellers and missionaries accounts (often the only records available to document the evidence of slavery in Africa) and European business records (particularly valuable for piecing together the many wars and commercial disputes among the African powers on the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia area.
Geographical coverage
This resource is particularly relevant in its significant coverage of France, Haiti, Jamaica, Denmark, Portugal, Brazil, Senegal, and many other countries and regions.
Source institutions
The sources come from a variety of institutions including The National Archives (esp. Colonial Office records), Company of Royal Adventurers of England Training with Africa, British Library manuscripts, US Customs Service Records, and more. Material used in this collection include:
- U.S. Customs Service Records: Port of New Orleans, Louisiana Inward Slave Manifests, 1807-1860
- U.S. Customs Service Records: Port of New Orleans, Louisiana Outward Slave Manifests, 1812-1860
- Exploration and Colonization of Africa
- Selected Records of the Danish West Indies, 1672-1917: Essential Records Concerning Slavery and Emancipation
- Appellate Case File No. 2161, United States v. The Amistad, 40 U.S. 518
- Records of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts for the District of Connecticut: Documents Relating to the Various Cases Involving the Spanish Schooner Amistad
- Records of the Spanish Governors of Puerto Rico, Registro Central de Esclavos, 1872 (Slave Schedules)
- Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading with Africa and Successors: Records
- Heartman Manuscript Collection at Xavier University Library, New Orleans: Manuscripts on Slavery
- Africa Squadron, 1843-1861; Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanding Officers of Squadrons
- The Yale University Collection of Latin American Manuscripts, Part V: The Caribbean
- Oliver Pollock Papers, 1767-1788
- Vernon-Wager Papers, 1654-1773
- Jamaica Manuscripts Collection, 1774-1950
- British Library Collections
- Aaron Thomas papers, 1798-1799
Sensitive content
Please note that you may encounter harmful and/or offensive material during your research. It is important to approach sensitive topics with cultural awareness and respect for the lived experiences of marginalized groups and individuals.
Related resources:
- Slavery, Exploitation and Trade in the West Indies, 1759-1832 (subscription resource)
- Slavery, abolition and social justice (subscription resource)
- Black Abolitionist Papers (1830-1865) (subscription resource)
- Confidential Print: North America 1824-1961 (subscription resource)
- More websites on slavery
- Books on slavery
- Archive of the Anti-Slavery Society (Bodleian Libraries)
