Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Debuts at Emory

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A group of international scholars will gather at Emory Dec. 5-6 to celebrate the debut of "Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database" (www.slavevoyages.org) as it begins its own maiden expedition.

Two years in the making at Emory, the free and interactive Web-based resource documents the slave trade from Africa to the New World between the 16th and 19th centuries, says David Eltis, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of History and one of the scholars who originally published "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade" as a CD-ROM in 1999. He and Martin Halbert, director of digital innovations for Emory Libraries, directed the work that made the online "Voyages" project expandable, interactive and publicly accessible.

"'Voyages' provides searchable information on almost 35,000 trans-Atlantic voyages hauling human cargo, as well as maps, images and data on some individual Africans transported," says Eltis.

The conference, which also marks the bicentennial of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808, will feature presentations by Eltis' graduate students who have worked on the database, with leading scholars commenting on their papers. Other sessions include "The Slave Trade, the Web site and Atlantic History" and "The Slave Trade, the Website and the Classroom."

David Brion Davis, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus and founding director emeritus of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University, will give a keynote lecture on "Comparing the Paths to American and British Slave-Trade Abolition." Following Davis' talk will be the formal launch of the "Voyages" database by Rick Luce, director of University Libraries. For more information on the conference, visit www.ias.emory.edu/events/SlaveTradeConference.pdf.

Database Establishes Links Between America, Africa

Funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, "Voyages" is based on the seminal 1999 work, "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade." That CD-ROM included more than 27,000 slave trade voyages and has been popular with scholars and genealogists alike. However, it is no longer available and had several limitations.

"Everyone wants to know where their ancestors came from," Eltis says. "There are more data on the slave trade than on the free migrant movement simply because the slave trade was a business and people were property, so records were likely to be better. What the database makes possible is the establishment of links between America and Africa in a way that already has been done by historians for Europeans."

Adds Halbert: "The digital and Web-based Voyages publication is intentionally collaborative and can grow and change over time. Scholars who discover new information can add it to the database, and thus share it with their colleagues. In addition, researchers can download the database in a format compatible with the SPSS statistical package."

Slave Trade Database in the Classroom

Halbert, Eltis and their team also collaborated with educators from public and private middle and high schools to create lessons plans and other materials, so that K-12 teachers can take "Voyages" into their classrooms. These and other resources on the site, such as images, introductory maps and essays, help visitors appreciate the reality of the slave trade, says project manager Liz Milewicz.

Henry Louis Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and writer/producer of the PBS documentary "African American Lives," credits "Voyages" with shedding an important light on the hidden history of 12.5 million slaves.

"The greatest mystery in the history of the West, I believe, has always been the Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the New World," he said. "Their ancestries, their identities, their stories were lost in the ships that carried them across the Atlantic. The multi-decade and collaborative project that brought us [the Voyages] site has done more to reverse the Middle Passage than any other single act of scholarship possibly could."


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Ancient African Kingdom Captured in Emory Exhibit

The majesty and mystery of stone monuments from the ancient African kingdoms of Nubia have come to Emory University in an exhibition of photographs from famed New York Times photographer Chester Higgins.

"Nubian Dreams: Images of the Sudan," on view through Aug. 15 in the Schatten Gallery of Emory's Woodruff Library, documents the spiritual and architectural remains of the Nubian civilizations which rivaled those of the pharaohs for control of the Nile.

"In ancient times, Egypt ruled the world," Higgins says. "Then, Nubia ruled Egypt. Most people are pretty familiar with the monuments and personalities of ancient Egypt. What they don't know is that there are more than twice as many pyramids in Nubia as there are in Egypt.

"How those pyramids got there, and who and what history they represent, are details that only have begun to emerge during the last 50 years," Higgins says.

Higgins shot the photographs on several six-week field trips to ancient Nubia – today's southern Egypt and northern Sudan – between 2000 and 2006. A total of 45 images depict primarily pyramids, tombs and temples, most framed against the undulating warm, reddish-brown hues of African desert sands and clear, pale blue skies. A slide show of additional images, as well as a small number of Nubian artifacts such as baskets, beading and woodwork, are included in the exhibition.

"These images capture the spirit of place, concentrating on the remains of ancient sanctuaries dedicated to the belief in African Naturalism," Higgins says. "To me, these images capture the imagination of an ancient people. Here we see the human mind focused on issues of divinity and the sacred life. We see religious metaphors. We see what these ancient people constructed to their faith, believing in a God greater than themselves, with the power of life and death."

Nubian treasures also on display at Emory’s Carlos Museum

The Schatten Gallery showing of Higgins' photography compliments a nearby sister exhibition in Emory's Michael C. Carlos Museum. That exhibition, "Lost Kingdoms of the Nile: Nubian Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," features some of the most significant archaeological treasures ever found in Africa. Visitors can gain insight into ancient Nubia by viewing more than 250 objects in gold, silver, bronze, ivory, stone and ceramic dating from 7000 B.C. to modern times.

Higgins will discuss his photography in a free workshop at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10 in the Carlos Museum reception hall. For more information, contact Priyanka Sinha at 404-727-4291.

Higgins is one of the premier photographers of his generation. An Alabama native, he has been a staff photographer for the Times since 1975. His photographs have appeared in many publications and are featured in the PBS films "An American Photographer: Chester Higgins Jr." and "Brotherman."

He authored the photo collections "Black Woman," "Drums of Life," "Some Time Ago," "Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa," and "Elder Grace: The Nobility of Aging." His latest book is a 2005 memoir, "Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer's Journey."

Schatten Gallery is located on level three of Emory's Woodruff Library, 540 Asbury Circle, Emory. For more information, contact gallery director Julie Delliquanti at 404-727-0136. The exhibition runs through Aug. 15, and is free and open to the public.

The Carlos Museum exhibition "Lost Kingdoms of the Nile: Nubian Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," is within walking distance of the Schatten exhibition at 571 South Kilgo Circle, Emory. For more information, contact Priyanka Sinha at 404-727-4291. The Carlos exhibition runs through Aug. 30. Admission is a $7 donation, free for museum members and Emory faculty, students and staff. Free docent-led tours of the museum depart from the rotunda on level one every Sunday at 2:30 p.m. during the Emory academic year. Call 404-727-4282 to confirm.