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（British National Archives）馆藏编号为T 71/379的数字副本：《1815年圣卢西亚种植园奴隶登记册》。该登记册原件现藏于英国国家档案馆，其每一页的扫描影像均可通过ancestry.com获取。该登记册共计745页，根据种植园主的母语以英文或法文手写完成，完整收录了圣卢西亚岛上12727名被奴役种植园劳工的人口统计特征与亲属关系信息，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档案信息。本数据集通过逐字转录与工程化字段的整合，既能够呈现这座英国最晚完成殖民的加勒比岛屿之一的种植园规模、区位与生产类型信息，也可为这座长期缺乏学术关注的殖民地的被奴役群体提供人口统计数据、生平传记与家谱相关资料。本数据集具备极高的学术价值：既可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，也便于与牙买加、巴巴多斯等知名度较高的殖民地开展对比研究，同时能够凸显圣卢西亚岛上被奴役群体及其家族的历史经历。使用者可依托本数据集提供的信息，为那些未曾留下生平文字或口述记录的被奴役者生成个人传记与家谱，同时也可借此构建比较研究框架，对比圣卢西亚与其他地区被奴役群体的生存境遇。本项目团队同时希望借此推动相关家谱研究，帮助后裔社群成员追溯其家族祖先的历史踪迹。