On February 1, 2018, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice released the New York Slavery Records Index, an online database containing more than 35,000 records. These records include "census records, slave trade transactions, cemetery records, birth certifications, manumissions, ship inventories, newspaper accounts, private narratives, legal documents, and many other sources." Collectively, these archives document the lives of enslaved individuals in New York state from the year 1525 through the advent of the U.S. Civil War, making visible an important part of the state's history that is often obscured from official accounts. The database was created by professors Ned Benton and Judy-Lynne Peters along with a team of graduate scholars. Visitors may want to start by exploring the section entitled Easy Searches to Try, which offers a list of abbreviations that the team used to tag different kinds of resources in the database. The database is also accompanied by several short essays that provide historical context about slavery in New York state.