The National Archives is working with international academics to make the largest collection of first-person testimony of enslaved people from the Caribbean in existence – the Reports of the Protectors of Slaves – accessible to researchers anywhere in the world.

Voices in Slavery’s Archive: Law, Place and Testimony in British Guiana will digitise, map and analyse the records which are here at Kew and allow researchers to examine how enslaved people used the courts to make complaints relating to family life, work, health, violence, and a host of other issues.

The project has received a £1.5 million investment from the UKRI Arts and Humanities research Council (AHRC).

Dr Philippa Hellawell, Head of Collections Research at The National Archives, is a co-Lead on the project. She said: “This is an incredibly important opportunity to centre the voices of people who directly endured the hardships of slavery. Most records of enslavement are written by merchants and enslavers, but the Protector of Slaves reports, held at The National Archives, allow us to understand the experience of enslavement through their own words, not the words of others.”

As well as complementing existing important digital resources on slavery, Voices in Slavery’s Archive will pioneer new methods to examine the history of slavery by combining archival research with digital tools, community engagement, and family and community history.

Led by Professor Diana Paton from the University of Edinburgh, the project team will produce an online resource including the full text of the enslaved people’s complaints, and images of the original documents. The project will also create a physical facsimile of the documents, which will be deposited at the Walter Rodney National Archives of Guyana.

The project is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh, The National Archives (UK), University of Guyana, Xavier University, the University of Sheffield Digital Humanities Institute, the Walter Rodney National Archives of Guyana, and Guyana SPEAKS.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/project-to-bring-voices-of-enslaved-people-to-life/