Newspaper-Brokered Slave Trade Advertisements in North America, 1704-1807

Newspapers and newspaper printers played a crucial role in brokering the sales of enslaved people in eighteenth-century North America. This dataset collects information from more than 2,100 newspaper advertisements that document printers’ involvement in trafficking thousands of enslaved people. It extends from 1704, when the first long-running newspaper was published in North America, through 1807, after which the transatlantic slave trade officially ended and gradual abolition schemes in the north meant that the internal slave trade shifted slowly to the South. The dataset is useful for those interested in newspaper printers’ involvement in the internal slave trade, as well as particular transactions involving enslaved people. It includes available information about the subjects of each advertisement, as well as the terms of sale or transfer proposed by the advertiser.