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UNCG Slave Name Database Ensures The Past Is Not Forgotten

WUNC | By Laura Pellicer,
Frank Stasio
Published August 21, 2018 at 12:57 PM EDT
Uncle Marian, a slave of great notoriety, of North Carolina, seen in a daguerrotype circa 1850.
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
/
Yale University
Uncle Marian, a slave of great notoriety, of North Carolina, seen in a daguerrotype circa 1850.
Uncle Marian, a slave of great notoriety, of North Carolina, seen in a daguerrotype circa 1850.
Credit Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library / Yale University
/
Yale University
Uncle Marian, a slave of great notoriety, of North Carolina, seen in a daguerrotype circa 1850.

A team from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has been working to identify the names of people who were made slaves in America through documents including wills and bills of sale. The Digital Library on American Slavery lists about 80,000 slaves, and is referenced by tens of thousands of users each month. 

Richard Cox, digital technology consultant for UNC-Greensboro University Libraries and Lisa Tolbert, a professor of history at UNC-Greensboro, join host Frank Stasio to talk about the Digital Library on American Slavery project.

Richard Cox is the digital technology consultant for UNC-Greensboro University Libraries and he heads the digital database initiative. He speaks with host Frank Stasio about the stories within the documents and what they reveal about history and the slave economy.

Cox is joined by Lisa Tolbert, a professor of history at UNC-Greensboro, who has been working with students to digitize runaway slave ads published in North Carolina newspapers. She talks about the importance of putting these remnants of American history in context.

Copyright 2018 North Carolina Public Radio
Laura Pellicer
Laura Pellicer is a producer with The State of Things (hyperlink), a show that explores North Carolina through conversation. Laura was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, a city she considers arrestingly beautiful, if not a little dysfunctional. She worked as a researcher for CBC Montreal and also contributed to their programming as an investigative journalist, social media reporter, and special projects planner. Her work has been nominated for two Canadian RTDNA Awards. Laura loves looking into how cities work, pursuing stories about indigenous rights, and finding fresh voices to share with listeners. Laura is enamored with her new home in North Carolina—notably the lush forests, and the waves where she plans on moonlighting as a mediocre surfer.
See stories by Laura Pellicer
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio