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Colombian Archival
Digitalization Project:
Under the direction of Dr. Jorge Palacios Preciado, Director of the Archivo General de la
Nación-Colombia, and Dr. Renée Soulodre-La France, Coordinator of Research, NHP, the
York/UNESCO/SSHRC Nigerian Hinterland Project, the Schomburg Center for Research on Black
Culture, and the Dekker Institute collaborated with the Archivo General de la
Nación-Colombia to digitize the colonial documents relating directly to slavery that make
up the collection "Negros y Esclavos", in Bogota.
Background:
One of the most relevant aspects of the history of the Americas is the presence of people
of African descent. In the viceroyalty of New Granada, the participation of Africans in
the development of colonial and modern societies was crucial. From the beginning of the
sixteenth century enslaved Africans and their descendents played an increasingly important
role in the economic production of the colonies. Undoubtedly the documents that contain
the history of Africans in Colombia are of critical importance to the reconstruction of
larger historical processes and to the life experiences of individuals. These documents,
maintained in the collection, Colonia, Negros y Esclavos, in the Colombian National
Archive, contain a wealth of information that should be preserved and made accessible to
researchers interested in the variety of themes associated with the social, economic and
legal history of New Granada.
Project:
In order to preserve these documents and make them available to researchers, the Archivo
General de la Nación undertook the project of digitizing all of the documents in the
collection Negros y Esclavos. The documents date from 1550-1818 and were bound in 56
volumes divided according to region. These are: |
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The archives also digitized another group of
documents taken from the Collections section: Fondo Enrique Ortega Ricaurte, Negros y
Esclavos.
The total number of folios that were digitized is 56,654 that can be further divided up
into 1,138 documents or cases. These documents can be consulted by contacting the Archivo
General de la Nación, Colombia at agnnal@attglobal.net
Archivo General de la Nación, Colombia:
http://negrosyesclavos.archivogeneral.gov.co
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