Oceans of Kinfolk Database

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）》，明令禁止美国参与跨大西洋奴隶贸易。该法令同时要求，所有搭载被奴役者的沿海航船船长，需向出发港与抵达港的海关收税员（收税员缺位时由港口测量员代行职责）提交一份舱单，列明每名被奴役者的姓名。此项立法使得沿海奴隶运输活动得以被系统性记录留存。

这一时期，被奴役者被强制往返转运于美国数十个港口，但绝大多数沿海奴隶贸易的运输目的地均为新奥尔良——全美规模最大的奴隶市场。目前留存的、记录通往新奥尔良的沿海奴隶运输的入境舱单（inward manifests）约有4000份，共涉及超过63000名被奴役者的姓名信息。

"亲属之海数据集（Oceans of Kinfolk Database）"收录了上述全部记录的相关信息，包括被奴役者的姓名（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。该数据集的创建者指出："《亲属之海》首版所涵盖的每一项变量，都以清晰规整的形式，具象化呈现了令人毛骨悚然的认识论暴力"。目前，这些数据正在Kinfolkology中被重新整合与语境重构——Kinfolkology是一个数字档案库、协作数据库共同体，同时也是致敬被奴役者人性与亲属联结的活态纪念项目，其官方网址为https://www.kinfolkology.org/