Death records of anonymous Africans rescued from illegal slave ships and held at the House of Correction in Rio de Janeiro, collected at the Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, IJ7 11. Photograph by Yuko Miki. More

Figure 1 The first pages of the Mary E. Smith report (copy 2). On the right side, the lone column with annotations records “When they died.” The ship was captured on January 20, 1856; all of the Africans recorded here died in early February. Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, IJ6 472. Photograph More

Figure 2 Detail of the “Signs” column from copy 1 of the Mary E. Smith report. For example, no. 473, Ramiro, age sixteen, male, has a “4” seared into his right arm and filed upper teeth. This information was entirely omitted from copy 2. Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, IJ6 525. Photograph More