Reparative Description and the Archiving of Slavery Documents
Charla Wilson, Archivist for the Black Experience at Northwestern Libraries
Language is not neutral. And neither is description.
One way archivists make historical materials available to researchers is by preparing descriptive guides called finding aids. These summaries offer contextual information about a collection, including its provenance (its record of ownership), historical or biographical notes, descriptions of physical materials, and an inventory. Finding aids are often a researcher’s first glimpse into a collection. Writing them is an iterative process, and at times they need revision as terminology changes over time and our understanding of the past deepens. Meanwhile, biases and power dynamics can come into play when describing collections, impacting how materials are discovered and subjects are represented.
The formerly titled “African American Documents Collection” at the McCormick Library needed revision to address outdated and harmful descriptive language. This process is called reparative description, defined by the Society of American Archivists as the “remediation of practices or data that exclude, silence, harm, or mischaracterize marginalized people in the data created or used by archivists.”
Marquis Taylor, a library student worker and curator of this exhibit, and Jill Waycie and Charla Wilson, both McCormick Library staff, identified best practices for describing slavery documents and approaching them with anti-oppressive and anti-racist methods in mind.
Some changes introduced by this process:
- Changing the title to “Slavery, Enslaved Persons, and Free Blacks in the Americas Collection”
- Separating documents relating to or by Frederick Douglass into a new collection
- Adopting more historically accurate terminology and language that humanizes enslaved people
While changes were made to the guide, we retain a copy of the original finding aid that is accessible upon request. We also added a redescription note in both finding aids.
The Slavery, Enslaved Persons, and Free Blacks in the Americas Collection finding aid includes this processing note:
“This collection was redescribed in 2021 through a reparative description process that aimed to address outdated and harmful descriptive language, specifically in the collection title, scope and content note and folder titles. Changes included revising the title from “African American Documents Collection” to “Slavery, Enslaved Persons, and Free Blacks in the Americas Collection,” separating documents relating to or by Frederick Douglass into a new collection (MS202), and adopting more historically accurate terminology and language that humanizes enslaved people. For example, the words, “slaves,” “slave cargo,” and “Negro,” were replaced with “enslaved person” or “captured person,” given the context of the documents. The previous version of this finding aid is available upon request.”
The Frederick Douglass Collection finding aid includes this processing note:
“This collection was reassessed in October of 2021. Originally part of the “African American Documents Collection,” the items relating to Douglass were separated into a new collection, and the remainder titled “Slavery, Enslaved Persons, and Free Blacks in the Americas Collection” (MS101). The materials in the folders were rearranged chronologically and the container list was updated to best reflect the collection’s holdings. Also, the description language for this collection was updated to reflect proper terminology to describe enslaved persons. The original finding aid is available upon request.”
Acknowledgment
This work was informed by guidelines developed by library working groups doing similar work and recommendations from subject-matter experts. In particular, we referred to Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia Anti-Racist Description Resources, “Writing about ‘Slavery’? This Might Help,” and Yale University Library’s Reparative Archival Description Task Force.
We thank Kathleen Bethel, African American Studies Librarian, for her feedback on the revised guides.
Decentering Whiteness
The Reparative Description Project is part of McCormick Library’s Decentering Whiteness initiative, charged with identifying how library professionals unconsciously center white normative practices. Its goal is to move toward inclusivity of historically marginalized groups in our collecting, description, spaces, and public services.
Learn more about Decentering Whiteness and the Libraries DEIA commitment.