NYC college creates state’s first slavery history database

NEW YORK – A City University of New York college says it has compiled the state’s first slavery records index.

The New York Slavery Index , created by CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, provides records dating from 1525 through the Civil War. WNBC-TV reports the database includes records, documents, narratives and other sources that identify individual enslaved people and their owners.

Karol Mason, the college’s president, says the index will mark a significant contribution to remembering the history of slavery in the United States.

Visitors to the free public database can search 35,000 records related to New York state, including the names of the slave-owning senators and records of people who escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad.

The database was developed by students and professors.

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Information from: WNBC-TV, http://www.nbcnewyork.com