Emancipation, mapped
Maps are covering new ground in the digital age, and the University of Richmond recently launched the first interactive map of the end of U.S. slavery in the Civil War.
Visualizing Emancipation documents the path of the Union Army, legal boundaries and the spread of emancipation. Overlays and filters on the map highlight different people and events like fugitive slaves and the capture of troops, telling the stories of the men and women behind them.
Much of the map is based on digitized primary sources, such as letters, newspapers and diaries, many of which are pulled from Cornell University Library’s Making of America Collection.
Crowd-sourcing is a part of the map as well. Users can fill in new information using data mined from the library’s website or other reputable sources.