Data on the Antebellum South

Abstract.

In this article, the authors consider translation and translators as agents in globalization processes and focus on their role in the “first globalization” within the Spanish empire from 1500 onward. Combining concepts and methods from history and translation studies, they take the Southern Netherlands as a geographical center where translators, initiators of translations, printers, and other multilingual specialists were able to provide texts that circulated in the whole of the empire. The authors show how a relational database comprising multiple data on translations and the people related to them helps to uncover networks among the participants in the translation process and to discover if and how authorities were involved. Finally, the database sheds light on the translation centers and the empire's language system.     

Power and Agency in Antebellum Slavery

This essay synthesizes conclusions about the agency of enslaved people drawn from three books by William Dusinberre: Them Dark Days; Slavemaster President; and Strategies for Survival.     

Estimating Antebellum Passenger Costs: A Hub-and-Spoke Approach

Abstract

Over 30,000 miles of railroad and 4,000 miles of canals were constructed in the United States between 1815 and 1861. However, the lack of data has prevented the study of this “transportation revolution” for most cities. This article thus enables a closer study of antebellum travel improvements by constructing a hub-and-spoke network that is capable of estimating the cost of passenger travel from New York City and Philadelphia to any U.S. city in 1836, 1850, 1856, 1859, and 1867. The semi-parametric approach provides an accurate cost estimate by using available historical information to determine the travel cost to all other cities.