CoDoSiS: Combining Data on Slavery in Surinam

The aim of the research pilot ‘Combining Data on Slavery in Surinam’ (CoDoSiS) was to develop a strategy to convert existing datasets on slavery in Surinam into Linked Data and to combine them into one database network with relevant connections.

Principle investigator

Coen van Galen

Disciplines

History

Resource types

Tools

A slave market in Surinam (Benoit, Voyage à Suriname 1839).

The need for this research pilot project arose because in the past two
decades a number of datasets and digital transcriptions have
been made of sources related to slavery in Surinam in the 19th
century. Many of these sources used different file formats and
different structures, which makes it hard to combine them in one
meaningful database network.

A folio of the slave register of Suriname (National Archive of Suriname, InvNr 26, folio nr. 1164).

CoDoSiS did not aim to create a new database, but instead
opted for a construction to link existing datasets, by converting
them into Linked Data by using the CLARIAH wp4-tool QBer
and to combine them into one database network with relevant
connections using the CLARIN-tool TICCL. During the process, we
were able to replace QBer by a new and more effective CLARIAH
tool, CoW. We created a pilot based on four different datasets in
which we showed the feasibility of the proposal.