Mapping Atlanta
Mapping Atlanta is a long-running Project Lab working with faculty, the Library, and outside organizations on public-facing mapping projects, most with a focus on Atlanta. Some of our projects will include the Rap Map, a map charting ancestry through enslavement, maps for a UNESCO World Heritage Civil Rights Trail proposal, and a CDC oral history map. Participating students will gain mapping and GIS skills, data collection and cleaning, and geospatial thinking.
Spotlight: Migration, Ancestry and Enslavement
Dr. Elizabeth West, an English professor at Georgia State, was given a set of papers detailing her family history some years ago. She was intrigued at finding stories of the family matriarch, Francis Sistrunk, a woman born enslaved in southern Georgia.
Dr. West founded a Project Lab to investigate the life of Francis and write Finding Francis, a history of her ancestor. Using traditional archive research and new mapping technologies such as GIS and Google Earth, they started creating a portrait of Francis.
Using both census records and deeds, students were able to trace West’s ancestor to the lands owned by Seaborn Whatley, her enslaver’s neighbor and a distant relative of Francis. They were able to map out Whatley’s land as well as neighboring landowners by referencing historical maps.
After mapping the lands of Seaborn Whatley and his neighbors in 1850, Dr. West’s students discovered that the Whatley home was still standing in Harris County, Georgia. With the help of the contemporary owner, they were able to get a fuller picture of Francis Sistrunk’s life.
