Slavery in Saint Lucia: Insights from the Saint Lucia Register of Plantation Slaves, 1815

This dataset is based on digital copies of British National Archives item T 71/379: Register of Plantation Slaves, St. Lucia, 1815. The original register is retained in the National Archives of the United Kingdom and photographs of each page are available through ancestry.com. The register contains 745 pages, handwritten in English or French according to the language of the plantation owner, that collectively furnish demographic and kinship information about 12,727 individuals enslaved on plantations in the island, as well as information about the size, location, and type of production of each plantation, and basic information about the plantation’s owner or manager. A combination of verbatim transcriptions and engineered columns allow us provide information about the size, location, and type of production of plantations in one of the last Caribbean islands to be colonized by Great Britain, while also offering demographic data, biographical and genealogical information about people who were enslaved in this little-studied colony. The dataset has tremendous potential for expanding current understandings of slavery and plantation production in St. Lucia, facilitating comparisons with better-known colonies such as Jamaica or Barbados, and for centering the experiences of enslaved people and families in the island. Users can use available information to generate individual biographies and genealogies of people who did not have an opportunity to leave written or oral records of their lives, or to provide a basis for comparing the experiences of enslaved people in St. Lucia with those of people enslaved elsewhere. The team also hopes to facilitate genealogical research, allowing members of descendant communities to locate their ancestors.

本数据集基于英国国家档案馆馆藏编号为T 71/379的数字副本：《圣卢西亚种植园奴隶登记册，1815年》。该原始登记册现保存于英国国家档案馆，其每一页的扫描照片可通过ancestry.com获取。该登记册共计745页，根据种植园主的母语分别以英文或法文手写而成，完整收录了这座岛屿上12727名被奴役种植园劳工的人口统计学与亲属关系信息，同时涵盖各种植园的规模、区位、生产类型，以及种植园所有者或管理者的基础信息。本数据集结合逐字转录内容与自定义结构化列字段，既可为这座英国最晚殖民的加勒比岛屿之一的种植园提供规模、区位与生产类型信息，也能为这座鲜有研究的殖民地上的被奴役者提供人口统计数据、生平与谱系信息。本数据集对于深化学界对圣卢西亚奴隶制与种植园生产模式的现有认知、推动其与牙买加、巴巴多斯等知名殖民地区的对比研究，以及凸显该岛屿上被奴役者及其家庭的生存经历，均具备极高的研究价值。使用者可依托现有信息，为那些未曾留下文字或口述生平记录的被奴役者构建个人生平与谱系资料，也可依托本数据集为圣卢西亚与其他地区被奴役者的生存经历对比研究提供支撑。本项目团队同时希望通过本数据集推动谱系学研究，助力后裔社群成员寻找到自己的祖先。