Freedom on the Move: Building a Sustainable Infrastructure for a Comprehensive Database of North American Runaway Slave Ads

FAIN: CHA-276821-22

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY 14850-2820)
Edward E. Baptist (Project Director: May 2020 to present)

The long-term growth and sustainability of “Freedom of the Move” (FOTM), a database of 27,000 fugitive slave advertisements from eighteenth and nineteenth century North America. This work includes an update of digital code, the improvement of user interfaces, expanded educational and outreach resources, database growth, and data validation.

The Freedom on the Move project (FOTM) is building a database of “runaway slave” ads from U.S. history to allow scholars, teachers, students, and the general public to document and understand the persistent resistance of Africans and African Americans to slavery. This grant will support long-term growth and sustainability through updating of code, expansion of user interfaces, expanded and improved educational and outreach resources, ongoing database growth, and extensive data validation. The work will be supported by intellectual resources of post docs, GRAs, and other students, plus annual conferences with K-20 teachers to form critical infrastructure for ensuring maximum humanities impact. The grant will drive extensive fund raising leveraging Cornell’s extensive alumni and foundation networks. Creating a continually updated FOTM will help shape the ongoing process of reimagining an American history defined by the ongoing struggle to build a nation open to all who seek freedom.