This archive series contains the register forms, which were the basis for the land register (Matrikler) for the period 1772-1821. These forms are also referred to as “slave lists”, because the majority of their content is names of the enslaved workers who lived on the islands. Apart from the name of the enslaved worker, the lists also generally specify the gender, age, occupation (field slave, house slave etc.), origin (born in Africa or in the Caribbean), religion and physical condition of the individual. In general, the forms only state a first name for each enslaved worker but no surname. Occasionally, it states two first names (for instance Jack James) or a first name and a nickname (for instance John Bomba) to ease identification.

The task in this archive series is indexing (tagging). This means, that we focus primarily on transcribing personal names, place names and dates. By transcribing these data you will make it easier for others, for instance genealogists, to find a document that contains a certain name they are looking for without transcribing the entire document. Exactly what we would like you to transcribe and how, you will see in the transcription guide.

You find the specific transcription guide for this series here: https://www.sa.dk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/slave-lists.pdf

The image to the right shows enslaved workers during work in the cane fields on St. Croix around 1780. It is a detail of Peter Lotharius Oxholm’s map of St. Croix, published 1799. Original held at the Danish National Archives, Rentekammeret, archive no. 303, Maps and Drawings 1600-1920, map no. 337.007.

Transcriptions