Cuban and Brazilian Slave Databases, 1769-1886 and 1707-1888 (ICPSR 39159)
Version Date: Nov 17, 2025 View help for published
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Laird W. Bergad, City University of New York. Lehman College
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39159.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The Cuban slave database consists of detailed demographic and economic data on 33,919 Cuban slaves between 1769 and 1886. These data were collected from the Notarial Protocols from Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago housed in the Archivo Nacional de Cuba in 1988.
The Brazilian slave database consists of detailed demographic and economic data on 119,963 Brazilian slaves from different locations in the province (now state) of Minas Gerais: Diamantina, Ouro Preto, Mariana, São João del Rei, and São José del Rei. The sources were the post-mortem inventories housed in the local archives in each of these cities.
Note that the data were hand transcribed from the archives mentioned above.
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2026-06-04 - This record has been revised to remove or replace language that may be outdated, harmful, or offensive. Updated terminology reflects current descriptive standards. Historical terms may remain in titles, source-supplied metadata, or study materials.
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Data Source View help for Data Source
Post-mortem inventories housed in the local archives in 4 cities in Minas Gerais: Diamantina, Ouro Preto, Mariana, São João del Rei, and São José del Rei. These data were transcribed by hand.
Notarial Protocols from Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago housed in the Archivo Nacional de Cuba in 1988. These data were transcribed by hand.
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Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Demographic information on slaves such as age, sex, national origin, occupation, price, family status, and problems with physical or mental state.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2025-11-17
Version History View help for Version History
2025-11-17 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?