DGHM 110: Introduction to Digital Humanities

Mapping Marronage

Annette Joseph-Gabriel

The homepage provides an overview of this interactive resource, displays one of the people included on the website, and offers a guide on how to navigate the maps.

Mapping Marronage provides interactive maps to follow the route of a select number of enslaved African Americans through their movements and connections during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The website provides visuals for “Flights” which depict the route one took to escape enslavement, and “Networks” which provide archived data on the connections these individuals made via letters, files and records, and other logged information.

Accessibility to the internet and a browser, a secure and reliable database, and the ability to navigate maps.

While there are several articles and scholarly journals about Mapping Marronage across various locations, I found that www.mappingmarronage.com offers the only interactive service.

The user should have foundational information on the institution of slavery to understand the importance of this visualization. The viewer should also review information on the homepage regarding the differences between the Flight and Networks maps, and understand how to navigate maps.

Mapping Marronage offers visual instructions on their home page about how to navigate the maps featured on this website, and the visualization of the maps provides access to a wider variety of users. The about page deep dives more into what the website offers to provide more context for the user.

The information in this resource dates between 1705-1913

I would assume this website would not be accessible to ages under 12 based on both general understanding of what the content means and how to navigate this type of resource.