Jesuit Plantation Project Redux

Sharon M. Leon |@sharonmleon

 

Mulledy Hall, 1903

Thomas F. Mulledy, S.J. (1794-1861)

slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu

Enslaved Community owned by the Maryland Province Jesuits, 1740-1800.

  • 1,081 people 
  • 552 people with birth years
  • 391 children with at least one named parent

 

  • 32 Free people of color
  • 30 enslaved people owned by others

jesuitplantationproject.org

Derived data

  • Hand generated from document transcriptions
  • Individuals and relationships processed to People with Unique ID, and then de-dupped
  • Appearances processed to Events with participants
  • Event types: birth, baptism, marriage, death, inventory, health, sale, legal, labor, commerce, conditions, travel, punishment, run away
  • Imported to Omeka S to publish LOD
[1802 Dr St. Thomas's Manor in acct with Cash]
[1803]
[Jan]
26     To cash from Henny for 3 barrels corn @ $2   6.00  2.5.0
April 22    To Cash recd for sale of negro Constant, property of N.L. Sewall's estate  101.10.0

[opposite folio 1802 Contra Cr.]
[1803]
[Jan]
10    By do to do (the Taylor C. Layman) for making a servant's great coat  0.12.6
April 22  By Do [cash] to Mrs. Dorothy Digges for negro woman Jenny & her child  85.0.0

Title Text

Conditions

Gardens for the Enslaved (1790)

  • Single man: 100 yards long, & 40 yards wide
  • Married man and his wife, together: 200 yards in length, & 40 yards in breadth
  • If a married man has a patch of these last dimensions; his wife shall have no separate patch.
  • No boy, nor girl shall be entitled to a patch til he or she is a full hand, with respect to work
  • The patches shall be made only in such places, as the Master shall appoint.

Men & working boys (1797)

One Winter suit consisting of one woolen jacket & breeches (or, trowsers, at option of Master): one pair yarn stockings; one pair shoes. -- Two shirts -- one pair linen trowsers, for summer.

Women & working girls (1797)

One woolen short gown and petticoat, for winter -- one linen petticoat, for summer -- two shifts -- one pair shoes -- one pair yarn stockings every other year; & feeting, alternately.

Children -- As necessity requires.

N.B. Blankets, when necessary.

Health

Major Contagions

  • Early 1790s: Small pox
  • Near constant malaria
  • 1827-1828: Typhoid

Manumisson and Selling for Term

earlywashingtondc.org

Marriage and Family

Title Text

Place People Spouses Children
White Marsh 252 52 150
Bohemia 101 10 14
Newtown 175 49 98
St. Inigoes 222 13 22
St. Thomas 93 15 29
St. Joseph 37 0 4
Port Tobacco 66 22 44
Fingale 22 0 16
Georgetown 27 3 1

Social Network Analysis?

Why consider SNA for this community?

  • Are these communities more or less stable than others?
  • Are these kinship networks more or less dense than others?
  • Can we see (and explain) meaningful change over time?

sixdegreesoffrancisbacon.com

Questions about using SNA

  • What does it mean to analyze a community that is bounded and has very little control over their inclusion/movement?

  • With a significantly incomplete data set, what is the threshold at which social network analysis is revealing?

  • What are the appropriate visualizations to provide an entry point to this medium-sized collection of data points?

Newtown Community

Social Network Analysis

  • Average Degree: Average number of connections
  • Density: Inclusiveness (total number of points minus the isolated ones) and the sum of the degrees of its points 
  • Average Path Length: average number of edges from one point to another
Place Average Degree Density Average Path
White Marsh + Fingale 1.775 0.006 1.987
St. Thomas + Port Tobacco 1.808 0.011 1.671
 
Newtown 2.317 0.012 4.061
St. Inigoes 0.409 0.002 1.619
Bohemia 0.49 0.005 1.107