International research programme

Ghana

Further research into the history of Cape Coast Castle (1654–1877)

Lead organisation

Ghana Museums and Monuments Board

Project lead

Kwesi Essel Blankson

This research aims to explore further the historical significance of Cape Coast Castle and the role it played during the Transatlantic slave trade and the colonisation of the Gold Coast between 1654 and 1877. This will revise and enhance the interpretation and narratives about Ghana’s Castles and Forts, UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Living structures

Lead organisation

Si Hene Foundation

Project lead

Rita Mawuena Benissan

Living Structures is an 18-month initiative led by the Si Hene Foundation to digitally document and preserve Ghana’s endangered forts, castles, and their surrounding communities. Rooted in community engagement and powered by advanced technologies, the project safeguards sites that carry cultural, historical, and symbolic significance.

Sites of memory

Lead organisation

University of Cape Coast

Project Lead

Prof Emmanuel Saboro

'Sites of Memory: The Hidden and Lost Stories that Historical Sites and Spaces tell about the Atlantic Slave Trade in Ghana', will trace the specific sites and spaces that were involved in the logistics of the slave trade, demonstrating how these sites both problematise and deepen cultural understanding of how landscapes shaped the slave trade.

Study trip fund

Lead organisation

University of Cape Coast

Recipients

Paul Junior Boateng, Anita Kporkpor Pobi, and Gifty Emma Amiah

These students will receive a sum toward funding travel to TNA’s site and the use of its resources, to help further their individual projects.

Documentation and research room: Building archives, scholarship, and publications

Lead organisation

University of Cape Coast

Project Lead

Dr Mario Nisbett

This project proposes the establishment of a Heritage Resource Centre at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), under the Centre for African and International Studies (CAIS). The Room will serve as a dedicated space for research, public engagement, housing digital and hard copies of archival materials, transcripts, oral traditions, and selected archaeological artefacts.

Cameroon

Atlantic identities and ancestral reconnections in Southern Cameroon

Lead organisation

University of Beau

Project Leads

Nkwiyir Marina

The project analyses, from an archival, historical, and memorial perspectives, the centuries-old dialogue between the Caribbean and Cameroon, through the prism of identity reconstruction for captives of the transatlantic slave trade, during the Middle Passage (16th–19th century). It also examines the impact of this under-documented legacy on the perceptions of African Americans seeking their origins in southern Cameroon and the Caribbean.

Barbados

Technological determinism and the evolution of slaving vessels recorded in Barbados 1650–1850

Project Lead

Geoff Ward

This project seeks to bring an understanding of the movement of persons and material through the technological evolution of sailing vessels operating in the Atlantic World throughout the period of Transatlantic Chattel Slavery. It will do this by applying previously completed research on the evolution of shipping technology of the period and applying it to primary source shipping records held by the Lloyds Register and The National Archives.

Barbados Museum digitisation programme

Lead organisation

Barbados Museum and Historical Society

Project Lead

Alissandra Cummins

The Shilstone Memorial Library Fellowship and the Revoicing the Archive Artist Fellowship are competitive programmes that support research, collections development, and public engagement through sustained engagement with the Barbados Museum and Historical Society’s library and archival holdings, with particular emphasis on Transatlantic Slavery.

Research undertaken within the Fellowships is guided by three principal source bases:

1. The BMHS collections (1933–present), comprising a wide range of materials relating to slavery and its legacies
2. The corpus of documents inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register as Barbados: Documentary Heritage of Enslaved Peoples of the Caribbean
3. Michael Chandler’s A Guide to Records in Barbados, which provides a critical framework for navigating the island’s archival landscape

Together, these sources anchor the Fellowships in globally significant documentary heritage while enabling Fellows to interrogate, contextualise, and expand access to Barbados’ historical records

Archival conservation programme

Lead organisation

Barbados Archives Department

The Barbados Archives Department will be acquiring specialized archival conservation resources to safeguard fragile records during the slavery period. This investment will ensure long-term preservation of cultural heritage materials that are at risk of deterioration due to environmental factors and handling. This funding will benefit such areas as user services with regard to the provision of access to previously fragile documents as well as conservation staff training.

International mobility research programme

Lead organisation

University of West Indies, Cave Hill

Project Lead

Tara Inniss

The proposed work will connect mutual research interests in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and the UK via research activities that align with the objectives of PASSAGE.

PASSAGE aims to increase, support and promote research into transatlantic slavery through scholarship, archiving and global engagement. Due to this, historical research and scholarship by students and staff will drive the activities of the grant.

Jamaica

Digitisation of transatlantic slavery archives

Lead organisation

National Library of Jamaica

Project lead

Beverly Lashley

The National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) houses invaluable collections documenting Jamaica’s cultural, political, and social history. This project seeks funding to digitize and preserve these collections, ensuring their long-term survival and global accessibility. It will create a robust digital platform, support research, education, and cultural heritage preservation.

Cataloguing and digitisation of the High Court of Vice Admiralty and Jamaica Vice Admiralty Records

Lead organisation

Jamaican Archives and Records Department

Project lead

Ketanya Laing

Jamaican Archives and Records Department wishes to catalogue and digitise the High Court of Vice Admiralty and Jamaica Vice Admiralty records, improving access, preservation, and international research engagement with Jamaica’s maritime and slavery records.

Estate ledgers and life histories

Project Lead

Suzanne Francis-Brown

'Estate Ledgers and Life Histories: Enslaved People on Jamaican Properties Through Known and Potential Records' will facilitate research visits to UK institutions which hold collections identified in a compiled source list of records that might shed light on enslaved individuals in Jamaica in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; to view relevant records and where possible copy and transcribe lists of such enslaved people. This would contribute towards the future creation of a systematic source list and eventually a database of named enslaved persons.

PhD/Post Doctoral Research Fellowship

Lead organisation

University of West Indies, Mona

Project Lead

Dr. Julian Cressner

This grant will go toward funding a post-doctoral research fellowship and a two-year PhD Scholarship.

Trinidad and Tobago

Faculty travel bursary: Freedom for unregistered enslaved persons in Trinidad from 1812

Lead organisation

University of West Indies, St Augustine

Project lead

Gelian Matthews

The objective of the research is to determine the extent to which, if at all, some enslaved persons on the island of Trinidad were able to secure freedom as included in a clause of the Slave Registration Law of 1812 which stated that enslaved persons who were not registered after 1812 would be set free.