The Fugitive Caribbean Project invites you to explore and investigate gaps in archival knowledge through the text of fugitive slave ads from the Barbados Mercury (1762 - 1848). The Early Caribbean Digital Archive team—in collaboration with the National Archive of Barbados—is working to develop a digitized text database of the wealth of information contained in the hundreds of runaway ads that appeared in the newspaper of the colony of Barbados in the eighteenth century. We are using the Zooniverse platform to invite participates to explore the application of critical speculation to gaps in archival knowledge.

Runaway slave ads offer richly suggestive information about the lives, culture, and networks of enslaved people—information and stories that are too often missing from the historical record. Runaway slave ads are testimony to the quotidian and resourceful resistance of enslaved people to the violent regime of plantation slavery. We invite you to help us document and bring to light these stories.

Schedule:

March 26th 12pm - 1:30pm EST

• An Introduction to the Project and Speculation in the Archive
• Group-based Speculative Knowledge Exploration
• An Introduction to Critical Fabulation
• Group-based Critical Fabulation Exploration
• Closing Remarks

RSVPs encouraged with Zoom link to follow.