About the Authors

Meet the researchers behind this digital history project.

Abraham's cat

Abraham Gomez

Writer

I am an Undergraduate student at Michigan State University, working towards my BS in Actuarial Science and Statistics with a minor in Insurance and Risk Management. For this project, I conducted an interpretive analysis of each source and developed the main argument.

Email: gomezabr@msu.edu

Krystin's cat

Krystin Nelligan

Researcher

I am an undergraduate student at Michigan State University working for a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology, where I will graduate this Spring 2026. I am from Ann Arbor, MI and I have one cat. I found two of the enslaver ads for this project and took notes for said primary sources.

Email: nelliga1@msu.edu

Rena avatar

Rena Li

Researcher

I am an Undergraduate student at Michigan State University working towards a Bachelors in Business Management. I am from Madison Heights and Troy, Michigan and I enjoy networking and taking opportunities that'll help me and others around me grow. For this project, I worked on researching two enslaver ads and provided notes for the primary sources.

Email: lirena@msu.edu

Avery's cat

Avery Shrier

Editor

I am an undergraduate student at Michigan State University working towards my bachelors in History with a minor in Digital Cultural Heritage and History. I am from Hartland Michigan. I have two cats and I like to knit and crochet. For this project I created the ReadMe and sent our document to Professor Gillian.

Email: shrierav@msu.edu

Bernie's dog Simba

Bernie Eisbrenner

Developer

I am an undergraduate History student minoring in Environmental Economics, an energy management software professional, an entrepreneur, and a guy who likes beer among other things. I am from Plymouth, Michigan. I have a first-class hound dog named Simba. My wife is from Manisa, Turkey. As this project's developer I vibe-coded with Claude to create the html and css for the site. I also added a few chunks of text in my own hand. When I first accepted the role of developer I hadn't realized it would land me the majority of the team's work, but for much that is given much is expected. That being the case the role of developer comes with a de facto veto over what gets on the site that approaches something like supreme dictatorial power, which is honestly more intoxicating than beer. Neither of these have kept me from my responsibility to the team.

Email: eisbrenn@msu.edu

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Professor Gillian for guidance on this project, and the Freedom on the Move database for providing access to these historical documents.