The CD-Rom is loaded on workstations in Library West, Reference Area,
computers # C-1 and # C-2.
The CD itself may be checked out for three days from Library West,
Reserve.
A copy of the Manual and Codebook is available from Library
West, Reference Reserve.
The database is a spreadsheet showing 27,233 voyages (rows) and 227 variables of voyage information (columns).
HOME SCREEN
Has navigational buttons to all areas on the CD-ROM
QUERY SCREEN
For custom and/or predefined searches
When you enter the Query Screen for the first time, all
the voyages are displayed.
TO SEARCH:
Select the time period from the drop-down menu.
(If a second drop-town menu appears, select time period from this as well.
Select the region to be searched.
Choose region parameters from the first region drop-down menu,
Then select the region name in the second region drop-down menu.
(Select the blank if you do not wish to limit by region.)
Select search filters.
Choose from the drop-down menu(s) as needed, using the operators:
< , = , or >
Press “PERFORM QUERY” button.You can also type in your own filter parameters, using the operators AND or OR, as needed, in the fourth drop-down menu. (Check the "Codebook" available on the CD in the "Manual". A printed Manual is available in the Library West, Reference Reserve Room.)
Note: Searches (Queries) are case-sensitive!
RESULTS
The results are displayed in the lower half of the screen.
You can adjust the display area to make it larger or smaller, and can increase or decrease column widths, as in a spreadsheet. You can also change the column order: Click and hold down the mouse button on the column header. Slide the column left or right and release the mouse.
To see Voyage Details, click on the row or column header to get a
complete listing of variables for that particular voyage.
To Save a Query/Search: Click SAVE button.
Type in a name for
the current query and click OK.
For a copy of the Online Introductory Essay and the Guide to Use
(Teacher’s Manual) see:
http://www.cup.org/Eltis.html
Click on “Support.”
Consult the CODEBOOK for definitions of the variables used and a breakdown of information within each variable.
Once your sample of voyages is retrieved, you can get the following information:
Analysis: calculates information on slaves embarkation and disembarkation, tonnage, mortality, voyage time, and age/sex rations.NOTE: The sample number of voyages will change as not all voyages have complete documentation of all variables.
Summary: calculates the data by regions of trade in Africa and the Americas.Graph: presents bar graphs of the estimated number of enslaved Africans embarked and disembarked, per time period. (Use the toggle switch to the right of the graph button for embarkations or disembarkations.)
Horizontal axis: estimated years that the vessels salved on the coast of Africa or arrived in the Americas with slaves. Use the Labels button to switch onscreen numbers of slaves on/off.
Map: depicts the search criteria via path graphics, lines drawn across the Atlantic Ocean, linking the major regions of arrival and departure (principal ports, rivers, and broader trading regions in Europe, Africa, and the Americas).
Red square indicates ports frequented by at least two slaving voyages.
Click PORTS box to display place-names.A complete listing of ports is in the CODEBOOK and in the “Ports and Regions” filter. (Ports can also be places, e.g. Barbados rather than Carlisle Bay Bridgetown.) Ports are grouped into broad slave-trading regions or colonies.Yellow lines: voyages from AfricaDark green shading illustrates the approximate slaving frontiers. The size of the shaded area approximates the relative volume of the regional slave trades.
Pink lines: voyages to the AmericasThe relative volume of the slave trade, by region, is indicated by the size of the yellow or pink boxes located at the beginning or end of reach line/region.
Slave trades best-represented in the data set:
British, French, Dutch, Rhodes Island, and Danish trade. Roughly 90% of these voyages are documented. Little documentation is available for the slave trades of Portugal (1518-1790); Brazil (pre-1750); England (1630s-1660); France (1630-1707); Dutch Republic (1621-1660); colonial British North America and the United States (1644-1807, other than Rhode Island); and Cuba (1830s-1866).
Certain carriers dominated particular slaving markets in the Atlantic world:
British: Gambia River, Windward Coast, and Bonny, New Calabar, and the Cameroons River in the Bight of Biafra.French: Senegal River and, in the18th century, the Congo River.
For certain markets, the sample of voyages is large enough to illustrate general patterns of slave-trading, notably British, French, and Dutch voyages in the 18th century. Also, the database contains the majority of vessels that slaved in the Bight of Biafra (1750-1807), along the Gold Coast (1700-1807), and in the Senegal and Gambia Rivers (1700-1807)
Shifts in regional slave-trading can be evaluated by comparing data from
different 100-year or 25-year time periods. There are large samples of
voyages in the periods 1601-1700, 1701-1800, and 1801-1867. Changes are
more subtle for searches on 25-year periods.
CB/8/04
