We are excited to announce a new 10 Million Names database today, Data Mining and Mapping Antebellum Georgia (DMMAG), which contains 9,368 records and 10,222 names. These valuable records were provided by the Data Mining and Mapping Antebellum Georgia (DMMAG) project, a collaboration between scholars from Troy University and Georgia State University.
The Data Mining and Mapping Antebellum Georgia (DMMAG) project is a pilot initiative exploring the feasibility of creating a scalable database and map prototype to identify by name and to geolocate individual enslaved African Americans and their families in the antebellum south. The pilot datasets contain more than 5000 named enslaved people and over 1000 entries of land parcels owned by the 120 associated enslavers. These datasets can be linked to connect identified enslaved people to specific enslavers and locations where they may have been held before emancipation. Primary records for enslaved individuals can be found in the volume, “Troy University Records,” and primary records for enslavers can be found in the volume, “Georgia State University Records.”
This test case of a small population sample in Harris County, Georgia illustrates the key relational data available through common archival resources such as land and deed records, estate records, census reports, and archival maps. Most promising is that this work suggests the high feasibility for scaling up to build a comprehensive database of antebellum Georgia, and in turn, exploring the potential to identify multitudes of enslaved African Americans by name across the antebellum south.
Through the 2024 award of a Digital Humanities Development Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the pilot DMMAG database and website was developed and launched in spring 2025. The expediency of the archival work, especially the transcriptions, was made possible through an agreement with FamilySearch.org, granting access to requested digitized records from their collection.
This database is presented as part of 10 Million Names, a project which aims to recover names and restore information to families of the estimated 10 million women, men, and children of African descent who were enslaved in the U.S. until emancipation through a collaborative network of expert genealogists, historians, cultural institutions, and descendant communities. This project seeks to amplify the voices of people who have been telling their family stories for centuries, connect researchers and data partners with people seeking answers to their family history questions, and expand access to data, resources, and information about enslaved African Americans.
This database is available to all members, including Guest Members, as part of 10 Million Names.