The proposed Hidden Legacies project will create a digital repository of archival records that will document the foundational role that slavery played in fueling the growth of contemporary institutions in the United States. This digital archive will allow users to access primary source records that document the connections between slavery and contemporary institutions, starting with three sectors, universities, religious institutions and financial institutions. It will include mapping to allow users to visualize and locate these institutions geographically. This digital humanities project will fill an important gap. Over the past decade, the ties between slavery and contemporary institutions have attracted growing interest from historians, journalists, policy makers and community members. Yet identifying, locating and accessing the archival records necessary to do this research remains challenging, limiting the scope and breadth of scholarly and community research projects. Archival records are scattered across the country, in libraries, historical societies and university and corporate archives. This project will bring many of those records together in one place, allowing scholars, students and researchers to build on this growing body of research, which is critical to providing a deeper understanding of the systemic role that slavery played in building many of the institutions around us today.

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