From their arrival to beyond, Black craftspeople, both free and enslaved, worked to produce the valued architecture, handcrafts, and decorative arts of the American South. The Black Craftspeople Digital Archive seeks to enhance what we know about Black craftspeople by telling both a spatial story and a historically informed story that highlights the lives of Black craftspeople and the objects they produced.
Building the Archive
Currently, you can explore hundreds of collected records documenting the lives and experiences of Black craftspeople working in 146 crafts/trades across 11 states. Future additions will expand the project to include Jamaica, Antigua, Haiti, Delaware, Rhode Island, Alabama, and Pennsylvania.
