On trial: digital collections relating to the slave trade and slavery in the West Indies

*The Library has now purchased access to the collection ‘Slavery: supporters and abolitionists, 1675-1865 ’. See New to the Library: Slavery: supporters and abolitionists, 1675-1865*

Thanks to a request from staff in HCA the Library currently has access to two digital archive series from British Online Archives relating to the slave trade in the West Indies, Running the West Indies: British records from West Indian countries under colonial rule and The trade in people: The slave trade in Africa and the West Indies.

You can access these digital resources via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 17th March 2019.

Running the West Indies: British records from West Indian countries under colonial rule

Made up of 7 collections including 301,352 pages this series allows you to see narrative accounts from missionaries combine with colonial statistics to create a picture of these former colonies’ development. Learn how owners of an Antiguan sugar plantation adapted to emancipation, and witness the nature of missionaries’ roles in the slave trade. It also includes the papers of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, 1694-1709. Together, these collections reveal how governments, slave owners and missionaries shaped the development of these countries over three centuries.

The trade in people: The slave trade in Africa and the West Indies

This series allows you to follow the slave trade from Africa and America to Britain through these records. See who traded in slaves, read accounts of their transportation and learn about the plantations where they were forced to work. Then uncover the philosophies that endorsed or fought against the existence of this trade in people. This resource includes 84,629 pages of digitised archive material.

Access both series via e-resources trials.
Access available until 17th March 2019.
Feedback welcome.

You can access all the digital primary source collections already available at the Library via the Primary Source databases list.

Access is only available to current students and staff at University of Edinburgh.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for History, Classics and Archaeology