[Activity]

Digital Archival Defragmentation

It is an open question whether the dehumanization implicit to data produced from any given set of records from slavery can be counteracted by incorporating data from additional (and most likely, similarly problematic) sets of records. In other words, is more necessarily better?

We’ve seen, in lecture, what record linking looks like at the digital level: lots of work and lots of null values. This activity will have you consider what, if anything, is to be gained from this process. Specifically, you will explore whether record linking enables a different sort of humanistic analysis than those based on data produced from a single source-base.

Instructions

  1. Click on the image below which corresponds to your group number.

  2. Write a nonfiction story here about the individual assigned to you based upon the manifest on which they appear alone.

  3. Write a nonfiction story below that story about the individual assigned to you using all the sources.

Group 1 (Isaac Phillips)

Group 4 (Alexander Dorsey)

Group 2 (Sarah Green)

Group 5 (Phil Lomax)

Group 3 (Betsey)

Group 6 (Susan)