The registers of individuals taken off slave ships by the British Royal Navy after 1808 provide
an unusual and large sample of Africans who were sold into trans-Atlantic slavery in the
nineteenth century. Extant records from the Sierra Leone Public Archives, the National
Archives (UK), and elsewhere provide information on approximately 140,000 individuals.
The aim of the Workshop is to explore three themes: 1) methodological issues in using the
Liberated African Registers; 2) the implications of the Registers for the reconstruction of the
origins of individuals and patterns in the slave trade from 1807 until its termination in the
1860s; and 3) determination of the destinations of Liberated Africans and the significance of
the “apprenticeship” system that was imposed on the so-called “recaptives.”
Invited participants are expected to present a paper outlining the current status of research on
one or more of the above themes.
Invited Participants:
Paul Lovejoy, Director, Tubman Institute
J.C. Curto, York University
Suzanne Schwarz, University of Worcester
Nielson Bezerra, Banting Fellow, Tubman Institute
Katrina Keefer, York University
Augustin D’Almeida, York University
David Imbua, University of Calabar
Benjamin Lawrance, Rochester Institute of Technology
Jeff Gunn, York University
Chantelle Flowers, York University
Richard Anderson, Yale University
Neil Marshall, York University
Olatunji Ojo, Brock University