In William G. Thomas III and Edward L. Ayers’s article, The Differences Slavery Made, both men look into how slavery effected America before the Civil War, and what part it had in ultimately dividing our nation.  Throughout their work, they use digital sources of information, such as maps to provide evidence to their points.  In their analysis, they examine two counties, Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA, and how the two were similar and different during the years leading to the Civil War.

Being in Pennsylvania, Franklin County sided with the North during the war, and Augusta County with the South.  Each was a wealthy and productive county, with Augusta ranking first in Virginia’s value of farms, and Franklin ranking 10th in Pennsylvania.  Each was heavily tied to farming, with both producing a large quantity of wheat and corn, among other goods.  Each was heavily invested in manufacturing as well, with Augusta actually having higher investments in railroads, strange to think of when knowing they would be part of the Confederacy.  And how did Thomas III and Ayers come up with these statistics and knowledge?  By digitalizing documents to better understand them.

Under the Evidence section of their article, a large number of maps, charts, and records can be found, all digitalized for ease of use and access.  Using GIS (Geographical Information System), they were able to make soil maps, and using old census records added residency listings on these maps as well.  Finding trade records and more soil information allowed them to discover what types of agriculture were being grown with each plantation of both counties.  Using census records, correlations can be made between agricultural prosperity and slave-ownership, or how many industrial facilities were using slave labor versus free labor.  By wisely using current technologies, Thomas III and Ayers made an incredibly detailed and interesting study that without digitalization would have been long, boring, and difficult to read and maybe even impossible to create.  I find their use of digitalization amazing, and should be a standard to which all historians hold their work to in this age of technology.