Oceans of Kinfolk Database
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In 1807, the US Congress enacted the "Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves," which outlawed the nation’s participation in the transatlantic slave trade. This very same statute required any captain of a coastwise vessel with enslaved people onboard to file a manifest listing those individuals by name with the collector (or in his absence, the surveyor) of the port of departure and of the port of arrival. As a result of this legislation, the coastwise traffic was systematically documented. Enslaved people were forcibly carried to and from dozens of ports in this period, but by far, the largest portion of the coastwise trade consisted of enslaved people being sent to New Orleans, the largest slave market in the country. In total, approximately 4,000 "inward manifests” documenting the coastwise traffic to New Orleans survive. They list the names of more than 63,000 enslaved people. The Oceans of Kinfolk Database includes information from each of these records, including captive names (first and often last), heights, racial descriptions, as well as each individual’s owner, shipper, and/or consignor. "Every variable found in the first edition of Oceans of Kinfolk presented a new, tidy encapsulation of grotesque epistemological violence," the creator argues; the data is being reconfigured and recontextualized at Kinfolkology, a digital archive, collaborative database collective, and living memorial honoring the humanity and kinships of enslaved people, https://www.kinfolkology.org/.
1807年，美国国会通过《禁止进口奴隶法案》（Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves），正式将美国参与跨大西洋奴隶贸易列为非法行为。该法案同时要求，搭载被奴役人员的沿海船舶船长，需向出发港与抵达港的港口税务官（若税务官缺位，则由港口测量员代为履职）提交一份舱单，逐一列明被奴役人员的姓名。此项立法使得美国沿海奴隶运输活动由此被系统性地记录在案。这一时期，被奴役人员被强制往返于数十个美国港口之间，而沿海奴隶贸易中占比最高的部分，是被运往全国最大奴隶市场新奥尔良的被奴役人员。目前留存有约4000份记录新奥尔良沿海奴隶运输的“入境舱单”（inward manifests），共计列出超过63000名被奴役人员的姓名。“亲属之海”数据库（Oceans of Kinfolk Database）收录了这批档案中的全部信息，涵盖被囚禁者的姓名（通常包含名与姓）、身高、种族特征，以及每名个体的所有者、托运人或寄售人。该项目创建者指出：“‘亲属之海’首版收录的每一项变量，都以全新且规整的封装形式，承载着令人发指的认识论暴力”；目前该数据集正在Kinfolkology——一家致力于尊崇被奴役人员人性与亲缘关系的数字档案馆、协作数据库集体与活体纪念馆——中进行重构与语境再诠释，其官网为https://www.kinfolkology.org/。
