The network analysis project: “Using Palladio to Visualize Ads,” by Clare Jensen, Kaitlyn Sisk, Aaron Braunstein, maps the location of runaway slaves from the time periods 1840-1850s through the collection of jailers’ notices and “runaway slave advertisements” from slave owners. The relationship between these two forms of tracking runaway slaves was formed by analyzing familiar language used to describe runaway slaves through text mining of the jailers’ notices and slave owner ads. The categorizing of locations allowed for state mapping which is difficult to follow and interpret due to missing fragments of locations. However, the county mapping of the paths runaway slaves took was a little bit more readable and comprehensive due to the set start and ends of journeys because the county jails filed the movement of runway slaves when reported missing and when captured. There is also a categorized statewide maps for Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas for location frequency made in an effort to find the places where runaway slaves were heading to after escaping, which is unclear on how reliable the information is considering the paths created are loosely formed based on assumptions of the journeys start and end. The interactive capacities of the created maps are very limited as the data used to create these maps are very unclear and mostly made with assuming the placement of paths taken by runaway slaves instead of documented data; the jailers’ notice and slave owner ads are the primary pieces of data used to create these paths by matching characteristics rather than official identifiers.
