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Project Details

The Slave Societies Digital Archive (formerly Ecclesiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies), directed by Jane Landers and hosted at Vanderbilt University, preserves endangered ecclesiastical and secular documents related to Africans and African-descended peoples in slave societies. SSDA holdings include more than 700,000 digital images drawn close to 2,000 unique volumes dating from the sixteenth through twentieth centuries that document the lives of an estimated four to six million individuals. This collection contains the most extensive serial records for the history of Africans in the Atlantic World, and also includes valuable information about the indigenous, European, and Asian populations who lived alongside them.

Subjects or Themes

African American

Project Language(s)

English, Spanish, Portuguese

Time Period

Geographic Location

Project Categories

Content Type

Images

Target Audience(s)

Creators

Jane Landers, Daniel Genkins, and many others

Year(s)

2003

Host Institution / Affiliation / Project Location

Vanderbilt University

Software Employed

  • A custom stack including Cantaloupe, Mirador, and Elasticsearch

Labor and Support

More than twenty years of effort, including field work in Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Benin, Cabo Verde and Florida.

Project Cost

Partnerships, funding sources, or grant-funding acknowledgement

National Endowment for the Humanities American Council of Learned Societies Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Vanderbilt University British Library Endangered Archives Programme