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By Cordelia

Although runaway slave ads were familiar to me before this activity, the Freedom on the Move database entry really enlightened me on the greater specifics found within them. I thoroughly enjoyed this activity because it makes me feel like I’m legitimately making a difference with something in the field. It also, as I said, really highlighted the details of the ads. For example, I never before would have noticed what types of information regarding the slaves the ads included, but when forced to input data on the topic, I suddenly understand.

The data entry itself was quite simple to do. The specific entry fields made the process easy, as it told you what you were supposed to be looking for. However, there could be some improvement in the specificity of these fields. For example, the ad that I did was for not one, but two runaways. This made a few of the data entry points difficult, as I had to account for both of them in a way that could be understood. Therefore, I had to make a note on the bottom to explain this entry. Though I understand that not all metadata can be accounted for, it becomes more difficult to sufficiently document all aspects of the ad when much of the pieces of it have to be included as a last-minute notation.

One other thing I noticed upon which I believe the data entry system could be improved is the reliance upon the digital transcription of the ad. Because the rest of the data entry and metadata setting is based upon the image of the transcribed ad rather than the transcription with the original image, if the transcription has any mistakes, the rest of the data is off. I would suggest including the original image of the ad with the rest of the data input, you could double-check the transcription before documenting the content of the ad.

Other than these things, I think the runaway slave ad database was a fascinating concept that I was happy to participate in.