I chose section B for review
First Website ‘Freedom on the Move’ is visually comforting to a person who is about to research history. It is accessible, the home page has good content and displays the “About” of the project, their team, Institutions, funding and more. Clicking on any tab will direct the researcher to a specific place on the home page. There is a small button to access the database through which the researcher could search for anything related to slavery. After typing in the words, many links with photos (newspapers advertisements and articles) are displayed, clicking on a link will open up photo to zoom in or get a clear view of the picture and a text view of the ad that is easier to read. I will place this website in the archive genre as it has a database of picture ads which are primary sources to do any research. This website is dedicated to both students and scholars to do their research.
‘The Geography of Slavery in Virginia’ looks like an older website, but it has content that is larger than the first one- ‘Freedom on the Move’. This website has Runaway Advertisements, Documents, Essays, Profiles and much more. Interestingly, most of the advertisements before the 1800s’ are stored on this website, whereas ‘Freedom on the Move’ contains advertisements posted in the newspaper after the 1800s’. However, after doing some detailed search I tried to search a single advertisement that is on the first website and did not find anything of it in the second one. This concludes that not all the advertisements posted in the newspapers are recorded, some ads might have been left out by both. When it comes to accessibility, this website is not as visually appealing as the first one, but it does its work well and navigating was fine.
In comparing both websites the first website was easy to navigate and was not too crowded by many paragraphs like the second one. However, I believe that using both websites will be a benefit if we are doing research as they are both very well stocked with data in their database. The only items playing a key role are options and accessibility. When it comes to options, the second one is a good fit as it has documents and profiles to search too. On the second hand, the first one is a good fit for accessibility and navigating through the website.
Your analytical points about both websites are spot-on and I enjoyed reading these evaluations! Although the “Freedom on the Move” website is more immersive, appealing, and (perhaps) more accessible to a broader audience, it simply does not have the same depth of information contained in “The Geography of Slavery.” They both carry pros and cons, but I think that if one is looking for heavier research content, then the “Geography” website is the way to go. Conversely, “Freedom” might be ideal for younger students and beginning researchers.