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Slave Trade Demography Assignment
In this assignment turn the raw data of British shipping records into a body of useful analyzable statistical data. The collective work will replicate the efforts of a statistically-oriented historian working on understanding the size and shape of the slave trade. Such a professional historian would ask of the data all of the questions we will, and many more. This assignment takes these questions and parcels them out to individual students – we are in essence a large research collective each working on a specific topic within a larger inquiry.
We will rely on transcribed records documenting slave imports to the colonies of New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia from Elizabeth Donnan’s Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America. The dates of these records vary somewhat although all cover the mid-eighteenth century – a high water mark in the British transatlantic slave trade. The bulk of this project relies on scanning, counting, adding, and multiplying – the regular tasks of the statistical historian. You will need to utilize the relevant section of the records, but everyone is encouraged to put some time into looking over the other records your particular assignment does not include. Each student will put together a brief paper presenting all the resulting numbers and discussing your observations from your romp in the records.
Once this work is all completed we will use part of our class time to tabulate what we have gleaned and discuss our first hand observations of the slave trade. Keep an eye out for temporal changes – for example do numbers seem to cluster in certain decades or is there a visible trend? Look for changes in shipping patterns and other shifts over time. Above all ??” think about implications! If you run into questions or problems as you plug through the data please feel free to contact me.
In the paper please provide the resulting data and reflect on the trade implications of your findings. What kinds of questions might we ask of this data, and what were your overall observations (NO PROJECTING CURRENT SOCIAL/POLITICAL VIEWS, base your observation from the professional historical perspective!) of the trade viewed from these records?
Specific Assigned Slave Trade Demography For This Historical Research Paper:
1.) Find the NY total numbers from Africa and which locations if indicated. Mean average numbers.
2.) Find the total numbers and mean averages of slaves from each African port broken down by port.
There are faxes for this order.