Digitised records documenting the lives of enslaved people across 20 former British colonies have been made searchable online for the first time. The collection includes about 300,000 pages and totals nearly 4 million records.
The material covers a range of locations, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa, and Trinidad, among others. The records are digitised and indexed by the genealogy company Ancestry, working in partnership with the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.
Across the reporting, the main emphasis is on access and preservation: the move to searchable online format is presented as a way to support research into enslaved individuals and family histories. The outlets also note the institutional collaboration behind the project, linking a commercial digitisation effort with academic expertise on the legacies of British slavery. No major differences in figures or locations are highlighted among the sources provided.
