Abstract

This project uses Tableau Public to analyze data from Port of New Orleans Slave Ship Manifests in the years 1818-1821. The resulting visualizations seek to answer questions about the domestic slave trade in the United States post-1808 as well as explore methodological considerations for the collection, analysis, and sharing of digital humanities data and the validity of results from the data.

This project was inspired by the Waves of Ink digital project directed by Sean Fraga Ph.D. which digitized and analyzed customs data for the Puget Sound in the decade leading up to the Civil War.

Research Questions

• What are different ways that data can be accessed for use in digital projects?
• What types of data visualization and analysis can be done on a spreadsheet of data points?
• What types of records were kept (and have been digitized) on enslaved persons in the 19th Century US?
• How can digital historians work with quantitative data in ways that allow them to still focus on the people at the center of the data?
• When is a project about the methodology (precision) of the data collection, rather than its results (accuracy), and how do those two features of data collection and analysis work together and compete again each other?

Table of Contents

Begin Here:

The History of Slave Ship Manifests

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Conclusion

Resources and Links

Considerations for a DH Project

Project Presentation for CDH 501, April 19, 2021

http://bit.ly/PriceCDh501Presentation