Overview

This page organizes controlled vocabulary used throughout the project. DASFAM pulls from multiple sources to develop a comprehensive set of terminology, including the Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series (PTJRS), University of Virginia's On These Grounds (OTG), and Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade (Enslaved.org). As this project is still under development, the terms outlined below will continue to change as we invite feedback from the descendant community, historians, genealogists, researchers, and other topical experts.


Status

Category identifying a person's legal or social standing, on a spectrum of bondage to freedom. Referenced from Enslaved.org.

  1. Enslaved Person: Person whose body, labor, and reproductive rights are owned by or fall under the dominion of another person or organizion in a social or legal system of involuntary servitude.
  2. Free Person: Person who is not enslaved (but may have been born to enslaved parents or freed by rights of free soil, abolition laws, or some other manner).
  3. Emancipated Person: Person who was at one point enslaved and subsequently manumitted by self-purchase or by acts of the former enslaver, a judge, or the state.
  4. Indentured Person: Person who is a servant or ward whose labor and service are bound to a person or organization for a fixed term, sometimes under a contract, including as collateral against a debt.
  5. Enslaver or Owner: Person or organization who owns or has dominion over the body, labor, and reproductive rights of another person in a social or legal system of involuntary servitude. Includes former enslavers, concessionaires, and overseers.
  6. Liminal Status Person: Person in an indeterminate, intermediate, or transitional status between servitude and freedom (i.e., dependent children born to the free womb; enslaved persons extended conditional liberty or promised future manumissionl; orphaned minors) or who has escaped bondage but neither lives nor is legally recognized as free or freed.

Role

Specifies how a person was involved in an event. Every participant of an event will have a documented Role. The full list will continue to be developed as new materials are added, but key roles include:

  1. Advertiser: A person or organization that places a public notice seeking the capture and return of an enslaved person.
  2. Alleged Perpetrator: A person accused of carrying out a harmful or violent act.
  3. Alleged Victim: A person alleged to have been harmed, harassed, or assaulted by another.
  4. Appraised: A person who is assessed and assigned a monetary value.
  5. Appraiser: A person who assesses and assigns monetary value to an enslaved person.
  6. Associated: A person involved in an event in an unspecified way or in a non-primary role.
  7. Buyer Or Grantee: A person authorized to purchase or take ownership of an enslaved person, commodities, goods, or services.
  8. Care Provider: A person who administers medical care or treatment.
  9. Deceased: A person who has died.
  10. Employer: A person or organization who employs or takes guardianship of a person's labor or services.
  11. Enumerated: A person who is counted or recorded in an inventory or roll.
  12. Hired: A person whose labor or services are engaged or temporarily granted to another party.
  13. Hiring Out: An enslaver or owner who temporarily relinquishes the labor or services of an enslaved person to another party.
  14. Ill Or Injured: A person experiencing illness or physical injury.
  15. Laborer: A person who performs work, including as a teaching assistant.
  16. Manumitter: A person or organization who frees an enslaved person from bondage.
  17. Mentioned: A person noted incidentally who is not actively participating in an event.
  18. Mother: A person who gives birth.
  19. Originator: A person who documents or compiles the event.
  20. Parent: The biological or adoptive mother or father of a child.
  21. Perpetrator: A person who carries out a violent or harmful act.
  22. Provisioner: A person or organization who distributes goods, food, housing, or supplies.
  23. Punished: A person who is subjected to punishment by an authority figure or enslaver.
  24. Rebel: A person who plans or participates in an act of resistance against an enslaver or authority.
  25. Receives Provisions: A person who receives distributed goods, food, housing, or supplies.
  26. Seller Or Grantor: A person authorized to sell or transfer ownership of an enslaved person, commodities, goods, or services.
  27. Sold Or Transferred: A person forcibly transferred from one enslaver to another, without agency or choice in the matter.
  28. Spouse: A person who is a partner in a marriage or union.
  29. Supervisor: A person who oversees or directs the work of others.
  30. Traveler: A person who moves from one location to another temporarily.
  31. Witness: A person present at an event who is not directly involved.

Group Type

Specifies the organizational logic of a group of individuals in an event.

  1. Listed Group: People who were grouped together in the source material or have a strong thematic or familial connection.
  2. Individually Listed: People who were listed as individuals in the source material.
  3. Enslaver Change Group: Used when there is a change in Enslaver or Owner, such as a sale or transfer. Has two values: the person or organization relinquishing legal ownership, and the person or organization assuming legal ownership.

Event Type and Subtype

Categories that group events of a similar nature or theme. Each event type is associated with numerous Event Subtypes. This value is what is displayed at the top of each Timeline event. Referenced from OTG. DASFAM will continue to modify, add to, and remove items from this list as needed.

  1. Commercial: An event in which a person is part of a transaction that involves the buying or selling of goods, services, or labor. Includes:
    1. Appraisal
    2. Hire
    3. Inventory
    4. Loan
    5. Services
    6. Small Goods
  2. Education: An event in which a person is being educated. Includes:
    1. Learning
    2. Teaching
  3. Status: An event in which an enslaved person is part of a transaction that changes their status or ownership. Includes:
    1. Dispute
    2. Emancipation
    3. Enslavement
    4. Exchange
    5. Freedom Seeking
    6. Manumission
    7. Sale
    8. Transfer
  4. Health: An event in which a person is ill or undergoes a major bodily issue, sometimes requiring attendance from a healthcare provider. Includes:
    1. Childbirth
    2. Illness
    3. Injury
    4. Medical Treatment
    5. Pregnancy
    6. Vaccination
  5. Intra-Community Conflict: An event in which enslaved people are in conflict with one another. Includes:
    1. Physical Altercataion
    2. Theft
    3. Verbal Altercation
  6. Labor: An event in which a person is performing some kind of work. Includes:
    1. Agricultural
    2. Artisinal
    3. Domestic
    4. Manual
    5. Midwifery
    6. Providing Treatment
    7. Sex Work
    8. Teaching Assistant
  7. Life Event: An event that is part of the normal course of a human lifetime. Includes:
    1. Birth
    2. Burial
    3. Death
    4. Grandparenthood
    5. Marriage
    6. Parenthood
  8. Membership or Participation: An event in which a person joins or participates in a group. Includes:
    1. Fraternal Organization
    2. Military
  9. Mention: An event in which a person is noted in an unspecified way, e.g. corresponence that notes an encounter. Includes:
    1. Description
    2. Disappearance
  10. Provisions: An event in which small goods or housing are distributed, usually by an Enslaver or Owner. Includes:
    1. Clothing
    2. Food
    3. Housing
    4. Supplies
  11. Religious: An event in which a person participates that is religious in nature, sometimes involving the presence of a member of the clergy. Includes:
    1. Attends Service
    2. Baptism
    3. Communion
    4. Confession
    5. Last Rites
    6. Marriage Sacrament
    7. Music
    8. Ordination
    9. Preaching
  12. Resistance: An event in which an enslaved person takes action to resist their status, treatment, or condition, or that of a patriot. Includes:
    1. Appeal
    2. Defense
    3. Freedom Seeking
    4. Physical
    5. Property Appropriation
    6. Property Destruction
    7. Work Slowdown or Stoppage
  13. Social Interaction: An event in which a person engages with another person outside of the context of a work-related interaction. Includes:
    1. Celebration
    2. Ceremony
    3. Dancing
    4. Drinking Alcohol
    5. Gambling
    6. Games and Sports
    7. Gathering
    8. Music
    9. Visit
  14. Travel: An event in which a person moves from one location to another, sometimes at the behest of an owner or trader. Includes:
    1. Importation
    2. Relocation
    3. Temporary
  15. Violence:An event in which an enslaved person is involved in a violent altercation with a non-enslaved person. This includes violenct acts against an enslaved persons by enslavers, owners, overseers, or other authority figures. Includes:
    1. Capture
    2. Harrassment
    3. Jailing
    4. Medical Experimentation
    5. Physical Assault
    6. Postmortem Abuse
    7. Punishment
    8. Sexual Assault