Kinfolkology x Community: New Orleans

is an open archive, digital home, and collaborative community dedicated to remembering enslaved people as kin and kindred. workshops convene Descendant individuals, communities, and organizations and allies of structural parity. We have three goals for these gatherings:

Kinfolkology x Community events allow our team to meet individuals, families and organizations from various Descendant communities and learn how to support their work.

Kinfolkology x Community events provide an opportunity for our team to share what we do and why we do it. We will also give a behind-the-scenes introduction to two databases hosted by Kinfolkology:

is a database of the coastwise traffic of enslaved people in the antebellum United States. Oceans of Kinfolk currently includes the names of more than 63,000 enslaved men, women and children trafficked to New Orleans from domestic ports between 1818 and 1860. More than half of those individuals departed from Virginia. Oceans of Kinfolk was constructed by Kinfolkology Co-Founder Jennie K. Williams.

is a developing Kinfolkology database and digital archive of enslaved people who were sold in New Orleans, the largest market for the buying and selling of human beings in antebellum America.

Kinfolkology uses the term “Descendant” to refer to individuals with ancestors whose names appear in or , as well as individuals who feel connected to enslaved ancestors through memory and/or kinship, whether or not they found those ancestors’ names on historical documents or in databases produced from historical records. We also understand “Descendant” to refer to anyone who feels connected to Kinfolkology’s work, whether or not they have a genealogical connection to it. This definition is adapted from the Montpelier Descendants’ Committee’s guide to Descendant engagement (also known as “the Rubric”).

While we have chosen to define “Descendant” in these ways, we acknowledge and respect that the term means different things to different people, places, and communities.

Structural parity is a model of shared organizational authority or governance developed by the Montpelier Descendants Committee. When structural parity is in place, descendants are represented—and empowered—at every level of an organization.

Also check out other Workshops in New Orleans.