“Book of Negroes” (1783) from the Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester Papers

Dataset CreatorLibrary and Archives CanadaContributorsUnited Empire Loyalists’ Association of CanadaThe “Book of Negroes” (original title) is a register in which were entered the names of Black people who evacuated New York on British ships to Nova Scotia from April to November 1783, following the American Revolution. It is an extremely important document for the history and genealogy of Black people in Canada and the United States.Before the publication on November 30, 1782, of the preliminary articles of the Treaty of Paris, former enslaved persons that had joined the British during the war were considered free British subjects. Wanting to avoid contravening article 7 regarding the transportation of Black people, Guy Carleton, commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, ordered that the name of every Black person on board British ships leaving the port of New York and descriptive information about them be recorded. Had it been later declared that they had not respected the treaty, the British would have used the register to compensate American enslavers.Although most of them made it to Nova Scotia, some individuals, declared fugitive slaves, were sent back to enslavers. In parallel, the Americans also created a version of the register, the “book no. 2,” held at the National Archives in Washington (NAID 5890797). Therefore, there are two original versions. A full transcription of the Book of Negroes is presented on the Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People website. Once on that site, click on “Documents” then on “Official Documents and Proclamations.”12014-2015EnglishNew York1783RegisterBritish Headquarters papers fonds R7902, MG23-B1; microfilm M–369, Library and Archives of Canada.Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester: Papers, PRO 30/55/100, The National Archives, Kew, England.This dataset is based on a microfilmed copy in the collection of Library and Archives Canada (LAC; British Headquarters papers fonds R7902, MG23-B1; microfilm M–369) of the original register preserved at The National Archives, in England, in the Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, Papers (PRO 30/55/100). The Sir Guy Carleton branch of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada (UELAC), with the help of volunteers and researchers, indexed the information from the microfilm and created a database on a CD-ROM. LAC later partnered with the UELAC and used the CD-ROM to create a searchable online database, from which this dataset is derived, sometime prior to 2015. It contains entries for 2,831 individuals (men, women and children). Depending on the details contained in the actual record, the information provided includes the following fields: their names, age, gender, physical characteristics, occupation, information about their family, military service, place of origin, previous and current legal status, names of former enslavers or claimants, destination, ships, and name of shipmasters. Added fields include ID numbers and citation information.Regarding names, every effort has been made to transcribe the given names of the people as accurately as possible, retaining the given spellings. Approximately 800 individuals have no recorded surname. A few of these, usually wives accompanying their husbands or children travelling with their parents, have been assigned the same surname as their spouse or parent so long as the family tie was stated explicitly.Age, Gender, and Race are provided as demographic information. Age is rounded off to the nearest full year, for example 7 1/2 years to 7 years, and 18 months to 1 year. Children less than 12 months old, or who are described simply as infants, are designated as 1 year old. Gender is registered as either male or female. Determining the gender of adults and older children was relatively straightforward since a physical description—“stout wench,” “feeble fellow,” “fine boy”—was usually included in the original manuscript. Such descriptions often were not present for younger children and infants, so their gender is based solely on each child’s given name.Race indicates if a person was registered as “black,” “mulatto” (a person of half-black ancestry), “quadroon” (a person of one-quarter black ancestry), “octoroon” (a person of one-eighth black ancestry) or part Indian.Many Black people joined and fought for the British forces. Those who did are identified by “Yes,” including any who “joined Lord Dunmore”; all others are indicated by “No,” in the Military Service field. Only a few individuals have an occupation recorded.The register includes a great deal of information about enslaved peoples’ lives before joining British forces. For Place of Origin, usually the Book of Negroes specifies the residence of freedom seekers’ most recent enslaver, not the place of origin of the people themselves; however, these are taken to be one and the same. No attempt has been made to substitute modern equivalents for eighteenth-century place names. Variant spellings have been standardized using the atlases, gazetteers, geographical dictionaries, and maps listed in the bibliography, e.g. Charlestown and Charles Town appear throughout as Charleston.Former Legal Status: indicates the former status of an individual as he has declared, such as “free” for Black people who were free from birth, including any born of free mothers or manumitted at birth, as well as children born within the British lines; “indentured” for indentured servants, including anyone said to have “served time” with a particular enslaver; “slave” for former slaves. Current Legal Status is used to describe an individual’s legal status at time of boarding. Note that Black people who were born free, including children born within the British lines, are considered to be still free unless the original manuscript states that they have since been enslaved. Also deemed free are all those who possessed certificates of freedom.How Freedom was Obtained indicates the ways in which Black people obtained their freedom such as: Abandoned: people whose enslavers left them to fend for themselves.Born Free: people who were freeborn, except children born within the British lines.Born Free (British Lines): children born within the British lines.Brought off: people taken from their enslavers by a third party, whether an individual or regiment.Manumitted: people who were released from slavery or servitude, including those manumitted at birth or at the death of their enslaver.Master Died: people who were not necessarily manumitted, but nonetheless found themselves free following the death of their enslaver.Purchased: people who purchased their own freedom or had it purchased for them by someone else.Ran off: people who ran away and successfully escaped, including all those who said they “left” their enslaver.Ran off (British Proclamation): same as “Ran off” but with the proviso that the Black person claimed the authority of British proclamation.Returned: people who were forcibly removed from the ship at the time of inspection, returned to their enslaver, and hence did not emigrate.Sent away: people who were ordered away from their enslaver by a third party.Served time: people who apparently earned their freedom through indentured service. Note that not all Black people who “served their time” are included here since many of them were already free. If freeborn, for example, they are entered under “born free.”When Freedom was Obtained: indicates when an enslaved person obtained their freedom, or if freeborn, when they left their place of origin.Certificate of Freedom: “yes” indicates if the Black person possessed a certificate of freedom or had a bill of sale proving that they had purchased their freedom; all others are indicated by “no.”Issuer of Certificate: indicates the name of the issuing authority such as General Birch, General Musgrave, some other official such as David Mathews, Mayor of New York, an agency such as the Office of Police, or simply a former slave owner.Name of Claimant: the name of a person, whether American or Loyalist, who laid claim to particular Black people.Name of Owner indicates the names of an individual, government department, or regiment in whose possession enslaved people were held at the time of embarkation. Any Black person said to be “on his own bottom” or “on her own bottom” (old English expression meaning living independently or by his or her own means) are identified as such here. Owner’s Regiment or Ship: a regiment, government department, or ship of an individual in possession of a Black person.The data contains several fields regarding the British ships leaving the port of New York on which the Black individuals were traveling. Destination describes where the ships were headed. No attempt has been made to substitute modern equivalents for eighteenth-century place names, though variant spellings have been standardized using the atlases, gazetteers, geographical dictionaries, and maps listed in the bibliography, e.g. Charlestown and Charles Town appear throughout as Charleston. Name of Ship is provided, with spelling of the names of ships standardized. In cases where variants occurred, the one closest to Lloyd’s Register of Ships or to Colledge’s Ships of the Royal Navy is used. In order to help distinguish between ships of the same name, the designations brig, sloop, schooner, ship, etc. are retained where given in the original, and are found in parentheses following the name of the ship, as in Kingston (Brig). The spelling of shipmasters’ names reflects the writing in the original document. Where variant spellings of the same name occurred, one form is used, generally the one most often used in the original document or the one that most closely approximates that found in Lloyd’s Register of Ships. All dates are inspection dates, not departure dates (yyyy-mm-dd).Finally, several fields contain source information. The Carleton Papers consist of many documents with multiple pages within the document. The document number itself may be a numeral consisting of 1 to 5 digits, for example “9590.” Where required, the page number within the document follows in parentheses, for example, “9509 (44).” If an individual is mentioned on multiple pages of a single document, the page numbers will be indicated such as “10033 (24, 36, 87).” Fonds, Reference, and Microfilm information are also included.Dataset Repository: Harvard Dataverse, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Q0OKL7Enslaved.org Linked Data Representation: https://enslaved.org/visualizedata?type=Dashboard&field=po&proj=book-of-negroesUnited Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.