Voices in Slavery’s Archive: Law, Place and Testimony in British Guiana

Voices in Slavery's Archive is a three-year Digital Humanities project focusing on the Guyanese ‘Protector of Slaves’ records, led by the University of Edinburgh with partners in Guyana, the UK and the US.

The Fiscals and Protectors kept detailed records about the ‘complaints’ that came before them. These records contain thousands of pages of testimony which collectively provide extraordinary insight into daily life and struggle during slavery. In the final years before the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, enslaved people in some colonies, including Demerara-Essequibo and Berbice (today’s Guyana) made use of a judicial institution, known as the Fiscal and later as the Protector of Slaves, to try to improve their lives and to seek justice in the face of violence and abuses. 

Cover text for the Report of the Acting Protector of Slaves of the Colony of British Guiana. The text of black on white is a mixture of preprinted headings with blanks filled in for the area covered by the report, to whom it was made and when. Some of the text has been scored through or added to to make it accurate in terms of date and the person reporting.
Page from one of the Reports of Protectors of Slaves. (The National Archive, UK)

In mediated form, these complicated sources allow today’s readers to encounter the recorded words of individuals who were enslaved in Guyana, including the testimony of people seeking freedom, protesting about work conditions, trying to maintain connections to family members, and dealing with sickness and death. 

The records are deeply personal and often moving, with significant historical consequences for how we understand power relations during the late period of slavery in the British Empire.

What we’re doing

  • Transcribing, summarising and cataloguing the Reports of the Fiscals and Protectors of Slaves for Guyana;
  • Mapping places mentioned in the text;
  • Linking the material in the Fiscals’ and Protectors’ reports to other important records relating to enslaved people, particularly the Returns of Registers of Slaves, which recorded enslaved people’s ages, places of birth, work assignments and sometimes family connections;
  • Creating a facsimile version of the 26 volumes for deposit in the The Walter Rodney National Archives of Guyana;
  • Analysing the material to investigate key themes relating to voice, power, law and kinship during the late slavery period;
  • Sharing our work at conferences, in workshops and through publications,
  • Working closely with descendant communities to understand the potential uses of these resources.

Voices in Slavery’s Archive is a collaboration between scholars in Guyana, the UK, and the USA. It is funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council from March 2026 until February 2029.

More details on the project can be found in an article by the project team, published in the Stabroek News in March 2026, at the link below.

Contact us

The Voices in Slavery’s Archive team would love to hear from those interested in the project. We will be looking for people to test our digital resources, to provide advice and feedback, and to share their knowledge. If you would like to receive our biannual newsletter or comment on the project please contact us at voicesinslaverysarchive@ed.ac.uk or voices@ed.ac.uk. 

Project Team

Dr Estherine Adams, Project Co-Lead (International), University of Guyana

Professor Randy Browne, Project Co-Lead (International), Xavier University, Ohio

Dr Katie Comper, Project Administrator

Dr Juanita Cox, Community Engagement Researcher

Dr Philippa Hellawell, Project Co-Lead, The National Archives (UK)

Dr Linsey McMillan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Jamie McLaughlin, Software Engineer

Professor Diana Paton, Project Lead

Dr Kimberly Thomas, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (from 1 June)

Project Partner

The Walter Rodney National Archives of Guyana

Project Advisory Board

Dr David Alston, Independent Scholar and author of "Slaves and Highlanders"

Ms Nadia Gamel-Carter, Archivist, The Walter Rodney National Archives of Guyana 

Professor Alex Gil, Yale University and The Caribbean Digital

The Guyana Heritage Society, represented by President Latchman Ramdyal and Ms Deirdre Jafferally

Dr Celia McAlmont, University of Guyana (retired)

Professor Celia Naylor, Barnard College, New York

Mr Eric Philips, Guyana Reparations Committee

Professor Matthew Smith, Director of the Legacies of British Slavery project at University College London

Professor Nigel Westmaas, Hamilton College, New York


A chart of the coast of Guyana comprehending the colonies of Berbice, Demeray and Essequibo by Captain Thomas Walker, 1st October 1801
Thomas Walker, A chart of the coast of Guyana, 1801. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France/ Wikimedia.

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