Topical Essays

Virginia slavery in Atlantic context
This essay places Virginia slavery into context of the larger colonial, American, and Atlantic picture, a context important for evaluating the advertisements and other documents this site contains, and points out the major shifts in the character of slavery in the time periods the Geography of Slavery materials present.

Source essay

Much of the material for the Geography of Slavery project is drawn from Lathan Algerna Windley's collection Runaway Slave Advertisements : a Documentary History from the 1730's to 1790. Read a discussion by project author Thomas Costa, Professor of History at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, about this source and its relevance for the project.