This dataset documents enslaved individuals registered in the Knox County, Indiana circuit court between 1805 and 1807. It provides details such as names, ages, former residences, lengths of servitude, and the names of the enslavers who registered them.
Use Cases
- Analyze the distribution of lengths of servitude for registered individuals to understand labor contract terms.
- Map the former residences of enslaved persons to study migration patterns into the Indiana Territory.
- Identify and count the enslavers who registered individuals to examine patterns of slaveholding.
- Cross-reference registered names with other historical records to trace individual or family histories.
- Study the age distribution of the registered population to infer demographic characteristics.
Strengths
- Data covers a specific and historically significant 3-year period from 1805 to 1807.
- Records originate from official Knox County circuit court documents, providing a primary source.
- The dataset addresses a documented gap in scholarship on unfree labor in the Midwest.
Limitations
- The sample size is unknown and may be small, limiting statistical analysis.
- Data is limited to a single county (Knox) within the Indiana Territory.
- Records are from a narrow 3-year window, providing a snapshot rather than a longitudinal view.
Provenance
- Source
- Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation Dataverse
- Collection Method
- Digitized from enslaved individual registrations in the Knox County, Indiana circuit court.
- Time Range
- 1805-1807
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Knox County, Indiana Territory