Guide to the Named in Affectionate Terms Database.
The Named in Affectionate Terms database contains information about approximately one thousand individuals who were enslaved by the Carroll family between 1689, the year Charles Carroll I immigrated to Maryland from Ireland, and 1864, when Maryland abolished slavery. I gathered information from many sources to construct this database. You can view digital images of those sources here.
Each row in the database represents a different enslaved person. Because many names belonged to more than one person (there were several generations of men named “Harry Hart,” for example) I assigned each individual in the database a unique six-digit identification number as well as a “display name.”
Please note, however, that the method I used to build this database means that some people will appear in multiple rows. The reason for this is that whenever I encountered the name of an enslaved person on a document, I made a new entry (meaning a new person, with a new, unique person_id) in the database. Then, once I was finished reviewing each document, I went back and tried to determine if any individuals listed on that document had appeared on documents I reviewed previously and eliminated any duplicate rows.
The known_records column lists the various records on which each enslaved person appeared.
Remember, you can view the records referenced in this column here. Also, note that you can adjust the width of any given column to view all its contents by clicking and dragging the line dividing it from the next column (circled in red below). You may have to do this to see all the documents on which an individual appears.
Every “fact” recorded in this database comes from a specific source or combination of sources. Citations appear in columns with headings that begin with “source”.
As seen below, for example, the inventory of enslaved persons taken at the Doughoregan plantation in 1773 suggests that Paience Cook (who appeared on that document as a two-and-a-half-year-old child named “Patience”) was born in 1771. On the inventory of enslaved persons taken in 1833, however Patience Cook (then listed by her full name), was listed as sixty years of age, which suggests she was born in 1773. On a list of clothing distributed the following year, meanwhile, Patience Cook was again listed as 60, suggesting she was born in 1774.
To filter, group, or sort by a variable, click on the small down-arrow next to the variable name.
If one wanted to view the sons and daughters of Old Grace (person_id #100071), one could either filter by mother_id (by entering or selecting “100071”) or by mother_name (by entering or selecting “Old Grace (died in 1773),” Old Grace’s “display name”).
