Data overview

This spreadsheet is a work in progress. Though most available sources have been probed, the list is not exhaustive. For instance, more complete census information from 1830, 1840, 1850 will be needed to expand on the data we’ve captured. In addition, due to Arlington’s history of jurisdictional changes and shifting borders, the data may contain or be missing the names of some Arlington enslavers and enslaved people whose residences overlapped with neighboring Fairfax and parts of Alexandria County.  

Data

Browse the embedded Google Sheet (below) or download the data to use locally:

Documentation

In compiling this data, we took inspiration from Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade and when possible we used the data model developed for their project, which you can read about here. In general, this means that our data describes events—such as a birth or death, a sale or an emancipation—and these events are associated with people, both enslavers and the enslaved, and with sources. The list of possible event and source types can be found in the spreadsheet embedded above.

One challenge with creating (and using) this data is following a single individual through multiple events. We have not yet completed the work to uniquely identify each person described in our database. In many cases, this would not be possible as the available records do not give us all of the information (full names, dates of birth and death) that would enable us to make these connections. Future versions of this data will link records that we can be sure are describing a single individual.

Where entries are blank the data is information is unknown.