A Just and True Return (JTR) is a database of Pennsylvania’s surviving county slave registrations. Users can search nearly 3,500 registrations spanning 35 counties for demographic and genealogical information about nearly 9,000 people. 70% of the people in JTR—some 6,300 individuals—were registered as property between 1780 and 1845 in accordance with state gradual abolition law. The other 30% were enslavers, representatives of enslavers called registrants, and mothers of registered people. For additional historical context, please consult our introductory essay and this list of external resources.
As you can see from the homepage dashboard, JTR is a work in progress. At present, our team has transcribed the registration documents for just over 10% of the surviving records—more than 350 registrations. These transcriptions allow users to gain a sense of how different registration documents looked, including enslaver returns, clerk registries, transcripts, and publications. For definitions of these terms, please consult our data dictionary.
There are four principal ways to access the records in JTR. First, you can use the search function. This is useful for users who wish to execute a particular query or to access a particular person or registration record. Although the registration search queries documents, it returns results for each person on the registration. In other words, if a search yields a single document that identifies four registered people, there will be four results.Second, you can use the homepage timeline. This is a shortcut for users who wish to access records from a particular year. Third, you can use the homepage map. This is a shortcut for users who wish to access records from a particular place. Finally, you can use the tag system. This is useful for users who wish to access records that share a particular attribute, such as registrations that were filed close to, or after, a statutory deadline.
In addition to making Pennsylvania’s surviving county slave registrations available to a wider audience, JTR features several essays by authors whose ancestors appear in this database as registered people. These descendant stories constitute a fifth way of accessing project records—one that reminds us that these registrations offer us but the barest glimpse into the lives of the people they purport to describe. The JTR team recommends reading these essays in addition to exploring the database for the richest user experience. For more information about the project’s approach to digital slavery studies, please see our ethics statement.
If you have questions or comments about anything you discover on this website, please write to cory-young@uiowa.edu.