In order to have something to study and have as an example, we have chosen a data set of voyages relating to the slave trade. This is not a particularly comfortable topic, but these voyages are part of history and we cannot and should not try to avoid the nastiness of the slave trade.
The data is drawn from the web site https://www.slavevoyages.org/, which documents over 36000 voyages relating to the slave trade. These entries are the ones that can be found in the historical record; others may not have left their mark. The web site is both fascinating and horrifying.
It is not our intention here to discuss the morality (or lack of it) of the various players in the slave trade, the impact of the trade on the societies involved, the economics and demography of the trade and so on. There is an enormous literature on the subject for those who care to look. We shall just offer a few pointers here:
Engerman, S., Drescher, S., & Paquette, R. (Eds.). (2001). Slavery. Oxford: OUP.
Morgan, K. (2000). Slavery, Atlantic Trade and the British Economy, 1660 – 1800. Cambridge: CUP.
Morgan, K. (2007). Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America. Oxford: OUP.
Engerman et al offer readings from ancient and modern literature on the slave trade. Morgan’s books focus specifically on the phenomenon of slavery in the British Empire, its start, development, funding and the processes of abolition and slave emancipation. None of the works are comfortable reading, but confronting the past is a necessary activity.
Specifically, the case study relates to slave voyages originating from the British port of Liverpool. The data used, if you want to follow what we are doing, can be downloaded here as an Excel file (494 kB). To see how to load the data into SPSS, click here.
Durham SPSS 