Transatlantic Slavery Working Group

Transatlantic Slavery Working Group
Name	Transatlantic Slavery Working Group
Formation	20th century
Type	Scholarly network
Headquarters	International
Region served	Atlantic World
Languages	English
Leader title	Convenor

Transatlantic Slavery Working Group is an international scholarly network focused on the study of the Atlantic slave trade and its legacies across the Caribbean, North America, South America, Africa, and Europe. Drawing on comparative, archival, and interdisciplinary methods, the group convenes historians, archaeologists, archivists, curators, and legal scholars to examine forced migration, plantation slavery, manumission, and abolition. Its convenings and outputs link regional studies centered on places such as Kingston, Jamaica, Charleston, South Carolina, São Paulo, Accra, Bristol, Lisbon, and Amsterdam.

History and founding

The Working Group was established amid late 20th-century scholarly interest in Atlantic history catalyzed by conferences at institutions like Brown University, University of Liverpool, University of the West Indies, Yale University, and University of Ghana. Early founders included academics associated with projects on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, and archives such as the British Library and the Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo. The formation drew upon precedents set by networks around the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Institute of Historical Research, and the National Archives (UK), aiming to systematize comparative research between scholars linked to the Caribbean Studies Association, the American Historical Association, and the African Studies Association.

Mission and objectives

The group's mission foregrounds critical inquiry into slave voyages, plantation economies, resistance movements, legal frameworks, and cultural survivals through collaboration with museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of London Docklands, and the International Slavery Museum. Objectives include facilitating archival access to collections at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Archivo General de Indias, and the Library of Congress; promoting methodological exchange between specialists from the Royal Geographical Society, the Society of American Archivists, and university centers like the Institute of Historical Research; and supporting pedagogical initiatives in partnership with the UNESCO Slave Route project and the African Union.

Membership and governance

Membership comprises individual scholars, curators, archivists, and representatives from institutions such as the British Museum, Museum of African American History and Culture, Universidade de São Paulo, University of Cape Town, and Columbia University. Governance operates through an elected steering committee with convenors drawn from allied entities including the American Antiquarian Society, the Royal Historical Society, and the Caribbean Studies Association. Advisory panels have featured specialists affiliated with the Wellcome Trust, the European Research Council, and national bodies like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Research and activities

Research agendas span archival recovery of ship logs and sale records housed at the National Maritime Museum, legal studies of emancipation statutes such as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, and archaeological fieldwork at plantation sites in Barbados, Haiti, and Brazil. Activities include workshops hosted at the John Carter Brown Library, symposia in collaboration with King's College London and Harvard University, and digital humanities projects linked to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database and the Digital Public Library of America. Field projects have partnered with community organizations like the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the African American Museum in Philadelphia to document material culture and oral histories.

Publications and reports

The Working Group produces edited volumes, policy briefs, and curriculum guides published with university presses such as Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Duke University Press. Its members contribute to journals including the William and Mary Quarterly, The Journal of African History, Slavery & Abolition, The Hispanic American Historical Review, and American Historical Review. Reports synthesizing archive surveys and provenance research have informed restitution debates in collaboration with institutions like the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Museu Nacional (Rio de Janeiro).

Collaborations and partnerships

Partnerships extend to museums, universities, and governmental initiatives: joint projects with the International Council of Museums, educational modules co-developed with the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum, and community outreach with organizations such as the Equal Justice Initiative and the Roots Project. The group has liaised with national archives including the National Archives and Records Administration, the Arquivo Nacional (Brazil), and the No.6 Regional Archives (Ghana), and has partnered on grants from funders like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Impact and legacy

The Working Group has influenced museum exhibitions at venues like Tate Modern and the Museum of African Diaspora, curricular reforms at universities including CUNY Graduate Center and University of the West Indies, and policy dialogues on restitution, commemoration, and reparative initiatives involving the Caribbean Community and national legislatures. Its legacy includes strengthened transatlantic archival networks, enhanced access to dispersed records in repositories such as the Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico), and mentorship of scholars who publish monographs and teach at institutions like Princeton University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and Freie Universität Berlin.

Category:Historiography Category:Atlantic World studies