Database Discipline in the Digital Age? Opportunities and Constraints in the Study of African Slaves and Freed People in Bahia and the Costa Da Mina

My presentation will have two parts. It will first present work in progress on the creation of a database of slaves freed in Bahia in the nineteenth century. Currently with more than 3000 cases covering the years 1830-1850, the database is being designed to link the record of the individual freed slaves to the digital image of the Carta de Liberdade from which the information about the slave came to facilitate research by other scholars. In addition, the presentation will survey databases being created by other researchers relevant to African slaves and freed people in Bahia and on the Costa da Mina during the nineteenth century. The goal will be to identify other work in progress, learn about the platforms that have been used to create the databases, and explore the establishment of a database consortium that can develop best practices for the creation of databases on slaves and freed people to facilitate links and communication across them. The reality is that at the moment many databases are being developed by individual scholars, based on research using different sources scattered around the Atlantic world, that contain information about the same slaves and freed people. The question to be explored is whether such databases can be built in ways that facilitate linkages and communication among them, and if so how.