SlaveVoyages discovers new residence at Harvard

SlaveVoyages, a pioneering resource for information on the largest slave trades in history, is finding a new location.

Details regarding the project’s imminent relocation were recently conveyed by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. “I am delighted to announce today that the SlaveVoyages site, along with its comprehensive databases, will permanently reside here at Harvard University,” Gates declared during a conference dedicated to honoring the open-access resource.

SlaveVoyages emerged as the culmination of nearly 40 years of academic contributions, with scholars from various institutions diligently working to digitize handwritten documents from archives across the globe.

Currently, its composite dataset, presently hosted at Rice University, encompasses data on over 30,000 slaving ships that navigated the Atlantic Ocean between the 16th and 19th centuries. Additionally, it chronicles nearly 221,000 individuals connected to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, including ship masters and the persons they exploited.

The project’s website, which debuted in 2008 at Emory University, animates data through vibrant visualizations. A time-lapse animation tracks each voyage on a map of the trans-Atlantic slave commerce. Two 18th-century French slaving vessels, both destined for modern-day Haiti, have been recreated in 3D video based on remaining sketches.

As SlaveVoyages progressed, the Hutchins Center provided essential funding alongside the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Emory University. The Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative (H&LS) is stepping in to assist the project in its new setting.

“Education stands at the core of the mission of the initiative,” stated Sara Bleich, vice provost for special projects and the head of H&LS. “SlaveVoyages’ databases enhance the curiosity of Harvard students who prompted the University’s continued engagement with its historical connections to slavery. By co-sponsoring the project with the Hutchins Center, the initiative can foster knowledge-sharing and visibility, empower scholars and students around the globe, while simultaneously reaffirming our dedication to truth.”

The conference held from April 3-5, organized by the Hutchins Center, drew scholars associated with the project as well as those it has inspired.

“This gathering unites generations of academics who have committed their lifework to uncovering centuries of data to help us comprehend in depth and with nuance the aspects of the slave trade — a quantifiably brutal commerce of human lives that transcended oceans and continents while devastating millions,” remarked Gates, who is also a member of the initiative’s Advisory Council.

Over three days, the sessions covered a diverse array of subjects indicating the global reach of the slave trade. The conference commenced with a panel discussing the genetic consequences of the slave trade featuring David Reich from Harvard Medical School, Kasia Bryc from the Broad Institute, as well as scholars from Johns Hopkins University and the National Center of Medical Genetics of Cuba.

Associate professor of history at Rice University Daniel B. Domingues da Silva, who currently serves as the host of the SlaveVoyages project, shared his insights on Brazil’s 19th-century slave trade. Jorge Felipe-Gonzalez, an assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at San Antonio, explored the potential incorporation of AI into the database. Jane Hooper, a history professor at George Mason University, examined shipboard revolts on voyages in the Indian Ocean.

A concluding panel addressed the South West Pacific trade, with educator and researcher Francis Bobongie-Harris highlighting the human toll.

Gates commenced one of the afternoon sessions with an unexpected tribute to SlaveVoyages founder David Eltis, an emeritus professor of history at Emory University and the University of British Columbia, presenting him with the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal “in recognition of his unyielding vision that realized a resource that has revolutionized our comprehension of one of the most catastrophic and vital economic, social, and cultural forces unleashed throughout human history.”

The medal is “particularly appropriate” for Eltis, Gates added, highlighting that Du Bois, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University, authored his 1895 dissertation on endeavors to curtail the trade of enslaved Africans in the United States.