On February 1, 2018, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice released the
New York Slavery Records Index, an online database containing more than 35,000 records. The database is a searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and their owners, beginning as early as 1525 and ending during the Civil War. The data come from census records, slave trade transactions, cemetery records, birth certifications, manumissions, ship inventories, newspaper accounts, private narratives, legal documents, and many other sources. The index will continue to grow as the team of John Jay College professors and students locates and assembles data from additional sources.
The site is accompanied by several essays, as well as a
video introduction that explains the compilation and uses of the database; there are also detailed search instructions and explanations of the tags and data sources. The faculty co-directors of the project are Judy-Lynne Peters and Ned Benton.
