Visualizing Emancipation: Contributing to a New Project

The University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab has just launched a project entitled Visualizing Emancipation.  Hat tip to Kevin Levin of Civil War Memory for bringing the story to my attention.  This fascinating website traces the story of emancipation over the course of the Civil War in a unique and informative way.  The team at U of R has placed individual "events" related to emancipation and slavery on a map of the United States.  Click on a given marker and a pop-up box explains what happened at that location and even includes a link to the primary source documenting the episode.  I was also pleased to learn that the public may submit emancipation events to the website for inclusion on the map.  You really could spend quite a bit of time just playing around with the numerous map settings and exploring what happened in various areas of the country.

I immediately zoomed in on the Northern Virginia area to see what has been included.  Just last month I briefly discussed a story of contrabands fleeing to Union Army camps in the Hunter's Mills area in March 1862, but I didn't find the event on the map.  So I registered as a user and submitted the event by filling out a form on the website.  Within a day, following verification by a researcher, my event was approved for inclusion on the map.  (See here.)  I hope to submit other events that I come across during research for my blog, and would encourage readers to likewise participate in this valuable project.  However, whatever you do, don't miss checking out this site.