Database

At the core of our database are records of events in the lives of enslaved people, such as births, sales, manumissions, and running for freedom. The EVENTS browsing page is the main gateway into the database, and it allows you to search and filter information by event type, date, location, name, sex, and age of the participant. You can review our vocabulary of Event Types to better understand the terms used in the database.

You can explore PERSON profile records to identify persons of African descent, enslavers, and other groups of people who interacted with enslaved persons, such as government officials, estate executors, and jailers. Person profiles provide biographical notes and link the individual to relevant events, places, and family members in the database. Person profiles also show connections between enslaved persons and their enslavers and make it possible to identify related people in the household. While viewing a person's profile, be sure to check the section marked "Linked resources" where you can expand a list of linked events that involve this participant.

Start with PLACES to learn about New Jersey counties, towns, and historical sites that appear in our database.

All events in our database are documented with sources. A source citation is provided at the top of each event record, and most citations include a link to a transcript or to a digital fascimile of the document. Many links will lead you to digitized sources that we have published on our website (some links will lead you to another website where you can view the image in a different digital archive). You can use the SOURCES page to browse all of our digitized sources. Once you open a specific source record, look at the section marked "Linked resources" where you can expand a list of linked events that cite this particular document.

Our contributors and partner projects can easily identify the record that they submitted to the database by using the Records by Contributor browsing page.

To learn about the types of records we have indexed to date, see Database Scope.