The project I selected has been completed and is titled, “Unsilencing Slavery, Remembering the Enslaved at Rose Hall Plantation, Jamaica.” It attempts to honor the slaves at Rose Hall through mentioning them by name and giving details on their lives.
At the forefront of the project was Professor Celia E. Naylor, a woman of Jamaican descent who became inspired to put this together at The Barnard Digital Humanities Center’s Summer Institute in 2019. Madiha Choksi, Alex Gil, a lecturer at Yale University, Moacir P. de Sá Pereira, and Kristen Akey were also teaming up on the project, which wasn’t easy as they had to navigate COVID-19 restrictions and collaborate virtually.
The Rose Hall Plantation was a slave plantation in Jamaica during the early 1800’s. Hundreds of slaves were held with little to no historical representation prior to this project. Despite tours being given at Rose Hall in present day, many of them focus on the story of the White Witch, a legendary folktale propped up by authors of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The project’s focal point is the clickable flower data visualization commemorating the slaves who served at The Rose Hall Plantation. Every petal represents an individual slave with as much information as they have on them. Details such as ethnicity, age, time served, duties, family, cause of death, and more are all listed.
Digital Humanities is a field that uses digital projects to analyze, interpret, and preserve culture. This project helps shine a light on history that has been left in the dark for too long.