Records of Enslaved Women and Girls in Mediterranean Catholic Europe

FemSMed is in the process of building a comprehensive database, which assembles records of enslaved women and girls who were attested in the regions of Mediterranean Catholic Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The database is created through the work of the project’s team members, who enter records based on the sources consulted in the course of their individual research. The database already contains information regarding thousands of identifiable enslaved females.​​

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The records are uniformly structured, to prevent duplications for individuals attested in different sources while also enabling FemSMed's members to identify geographic and chronological patterns and situate specific enslaved women within broader contexts. ​

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In addition to the database, FemSMed has developed an online platform, through which our team members manage records, perform advanced searches, export reports, and create graphs and charts based on our research queries. The platform incorporates mechanisms that ensure the integrity of the data by validating entries and tracking changes. Both the database and the platform continue to evolve, with new records added and functionalities developed daily.

 

Documentary evidence consulted and cases encountered by our team members, as well as emerging research needs, drive ongoing adaptations of the digital framework and the development of features that support our work. Recently, we added visualization capabilities that enable researchers to create custom charts, maps and summary tables, making it easier to display relevant data and explore patterns regarding the provenance, modalities of capture, and geographic dispersion of enslaved women in early modern Mediterranean Europe.

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Throughout the duration of the project, the database is accessible for internal use. It is scheduled to become publicly available in October 2029.

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For questions regarding FemSMed's database, please contact: 

Dr. Inbar Strul-Dabull, FemSMed's Research Fellow (inbarstr@mail.tau.ac.il)

Mia Joskowicz, FemSMed's Digital Humanities Researcher (miaj@mail.tau.ac.il)

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