Ancestry and UCL Launch Searchable Database of Nearly 4 Million Enslaved People in Former British Colonies
The Enslavement Registers of Former British Colonies is a newly launched online tool that allows users to search records of almost four million enslaved people from 1813 to 1840 across 20 nations, such as the Bahamas, Mauritius, and South Africa. This initiative, a collaboration between Ancestry and University College London's Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, was established from records collected by the British government during the 1807 abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The database features details like names, ages, maternal links, physical traits, and African origins, with search options available by name, date, or location. This release follows the Freedmen’s Bureau Project, which chronicles nearly 1.8 million formerly enslaved individuals in the U.S.
Key facts
- The Former British Colonies Enslavement Registers contains records on nearly four million individuals enslaved between 1813 and 1840.
- The database was launched by a partnership between Ancestry and the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.
- Records cover 20 countries, including the Bahamas, Mauritius, and South Africa.
- The original registers were created by the British government during the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807.
- The papers include names, ages, maternal family connections, physical descriptions, and sometimes details of African origin.
- Genealogist and Ancestry Senior Story Producer Nicka Sewell-Smith provides an introduction to the database in a video.
- Users can search by name, approximate date, or location to narrow down potential matches.
- Descendants of those enslaved in the covered countries now live worldwide, including in Latin America and the United States.
Entities
Artists
- Nicka Sewell-Smith
- Abraham Lincoln
- Colin Marshall
Institutions
- Ancestry
- Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery
- University College London
- Freedmen’s Bureau Project
- Open Culture
Locations
- Bahamas
- Mauritius
- South Africa
- United States
- Great Britain
- Latin America
- Seoul
- South Korea