A Quarter-Century Exploration on the Atlantic Slave Trade and Digital History

In recent decades scholars have made enormous strides in understanding the Atlantic slave trade. From the pioneering work of Philip Curtin in the 1960s, to the consolidation of decades of research in the website Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, first published as a CD-ROM in 1998 and later as an online and “live” database in 2008. While introducing some of the new features of the Slave Voyages site, this presentation also reflects on the impact of this website, the role of historians in this kind of endeavors, and the future trajectory of the project.