The Magazine of Early American Datasets (MEAD)
Document Type
Dataset
File Format
Excel
Abstract
We created two datasets about fugitives and captives in eighteenth-century Jamaica, one of the most violent systems of racial bondage in the Atlantic World. To produce the first dataset as an Excel file, we organized and recorded information contained in hundreds of newspaper advertisements offering rewards for the return of escaped slaves in Jamaica between 1718 and 1795. While there are some gaps in the records because of missing newspapers, there are still a considerable number of advertisements included. One feature of the ads is that many identify the African ethnicity of runaway and captured slaves. The second dataset also consists of information from newspaper notices about escapees who had been captured and confined to Workhouses between 1790 and 1795. We relied on the advertisements edited and transcribed by Professor Douglas B. Chambers (and others in his project) and made them available online https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00021144/00001. More information about the project and the ads is available at https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00021144/00001/citation
Anthony Wood, currently a PhD in history at the University of Michigan, did most of the hard work of coding. Professor Billy G. Smith checked the results to eliminate mistakes.
Time Period: Start Date of Data Collection
2018
Time Period: End Date of Data Collection
2020
Time Period: Start Date of Data Coverage
1718
Time Period: End Date of Data Coverage
1795
Date of this Version
Summer 2021
Source(s)
We relied on the advertisements edited and transcribed by Professor Douglas B. Chambers (and others in his project) and made them available online https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00021144/00001. More information about the project and the ads is available at https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00021144/00001/citation
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Wood, Anthony and Smith, Billy G., "Escaped and Captured Slave Datasets from Newspapers in Jamaica, 1718-1795," 01/01/18 - 01/01/20. 44. Philadelphia, PA: McNeil Center for Early American Studies [distributor], 2021. https://repository.upenn.edu
Additional Files
Slave Datasets Jamaica 1718-1795.docx (41 kB)Project Description
Workhouse Ads 1790-1795.xlsx (58 kB)
Dataset Captured Slaves in Workhouse
Included in
African American Studies Commons, African History Commons, African Studies Commons, American Studies Commons, Caribbean Languages and Societies Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, European History Commons, Labor History Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social History Commons, Social Statistics Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Article Location
Date Posted: 13 May 2021