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Mayor Adams Announces Ambitious Project to Make Accessible Historical Records of Enslaved People in NYC
February 27, 2025
Led by Department of Records and Information Services, NYC Will Begin Transcribing Records Dating to 1660 to Help Historians and Everyday New Yorkers Locate Records Documenting Enslaved New Yorkers
City Calling for Volunteers to Help Transcribing Records as It Builds Searchable Database
NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced an ambitious project to make accessible the historical records of thousands of formerly enslaved New Yorkers who lived in the five boroughs when the practice of slavery was legal here. Led by the New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS), the project will transcribe digitized historical records dating from 1660 to 1827— when slavery became illegal in New York.
Transcribed data will help historians and everyday New Yorkers locate the records of enslaved New Yorkers and even, in some cases, trace familial roots. To accomplish the project, the Adams administration is calling for volunteers to transcribe the digital records and help create searchable data. To learn more about the project, visit the digital archive, or volunteer, New Yorkers can visit Archives.nyc.
“We cannot build a better, brighter future without first acknowledging and accepting our past,” said Mayor Adams. “This ambitious project allows everyday New Yorkers to understand the history of enslaved people who shaped our city into what it is today. For too long, enslaved people were forgotten and lost to the past. Today, with projects like this, we shed a light on their story, learn their names, and ensure that time does not leave them behind again.”
“This first phase of the transcription project will make available records documenting enslaved people in New York City, and subsequent phases we’ll be adding more records,” DORIS Commissioner Pauline Toole. “This is part of the Municipal Archives and Library initiative to engage communities with the historical records of the city.”
The Municipal Archives — a division within DORIS — preserves and makes available city government’s records, dating from 1636 to the present. The Municipal Archives currently has identified and digitized nine volumes of records from towns in Brooklyn, Queens, and Westchester counties, dating from 1660 to 1838. The documents include birth certificates naming enslaved children, and documents that granted enslaved individuals their freedom. The volumes range from 200 to 500 pages, including both original documents and hand-written transcriptions of records. Using From the Page — a platform designed for transcription — volunteers will enter information from each volume into a form that DORIS will then use to publish a searchable guide. The transcribed data will be easily searchable and will help researchers and the general public locate and view records of thousands of formerly enslaved New Yorkers who lived in New York City that would otherwise be difficult to trace.
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