University Project Is Creating a Database of Runaway Slave Advertisements

freedomThe Freedom on the Move project, based at Cornell University in New York, aims to compile an extensive database of all runaway slave advertisements that appeared in newspapers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Leaders of the project estimate that there be as many as 100,000 of these advertisements.

The advertisements provide a unique look at history. The ads include detailed information about slaves’ names, appearance, mannerisms, styles of dress, states of origin, and possible destinations. Once the project is complete, researchers will be able to conduct statistical analyses of the data.

EdwardBaptistEdward E. Baptist, professor of history at Cornell and an organizer of the project, stated that “when students or others do the work it takes to get one of these ads recorded and analyzed, they become part of a bigger community dedicated to preserving the fugitive traces left on history by people who refused to let slavery contain them.”

Professor Baptist is a graduate of Georgetown University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Creating an Old South: Middle Florida’s Plantation Frontier Before the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2002) and The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism (Basic Books, 2014).

Professor Mary N. Mitchell of the University of New Orleans and professor Joshua Rothman of the University of Alabama are collaborating on the project.

Related Articles

1 COMMENT

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

University of Maryland Reports on Its Historic Ties to Slavery

"This new research report is an important first step in confronting and disrupting the narrative of our shared history. It challenges us to see through the privileged half-truths we’ve long held as a university and to create a more inclusive and truthful documented history," said Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, co-chair of The 1856 Project.

Yale University Commits $10 million Toward HBCU Partnerships

Yale University issued a formal apology three weeks ago regarding its historical ties to slavery. In response, the university has pledged $10 million towards an initiative that aims to expand collaboration with historically Black colleges and universities.

Gallup Survey Finds Black Students More Likely Than Their White Peers to Withdraw From College

A 2023 survey conducted by Gallup in partnership with the Lumina Foundation has found that 40 percent of currently enrolled Black students have considered stopping their coursework in the past six months, compared to 31 percent of White students.

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Featured Jobs