The Slave Trade Archives

The Slave Trade Archives Project was launched in 1999 with the aim of improving access to and safeguarding original documents related to slavery and the slave trade. It aimed to create a searchable database of slave trade archives and engage in digitisation of documents.

The Project is currently operational in eleven countries : Benin, Cape Verde, the Gambia, Ghana, Senegal, Argentina, Brazil, Barbados, Columbia, Cuba, and Haiti. Following the completion of the pilot experience, the 2005 Final Report recommended the Project’s  future continuation in other candidate countries.

The website features

• an overview of the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade
• an index of archive databases
• access to the photobank of digitalised archival documentation on the trans-Atlantic slave trade