Blog Post #3

In relation to digital tools, what comes to mind when you think of text mining? Personally, I have rarely used text mining tools. Before the digital age was in full swing, we used the precursor to text mining tools, word bubbles, and we would have to scan the documents ourselves, and even then it was subject to human error. In the digital age, with digital tools there are still errors that can be made both by humans through incorrect information that we input as well as computer error. However in an age where technology is becoming more prevalent, like we talked about in class, it is important to have an extra backup or save file of our important documents to account for error of any kind. Text mining is a program in which you can look at online articles or books and find the words that are most frequently used.

This week our Professor tasked us with using text mining tools to see what word might be used the most in an article of our choice. To find the article I used JSTOR, which I have used extensively in my academic endeavors. It is another digital tool that is very useful as a student.   I chose an article that looked at gender-based violence in convict camps throughout the south. The article is titled “‘Under the Sting of the Lash’: Gendered Violence, Terror, and Resistance in the South’s Convict Camps” by Talitha L. LeFlouria. While much of my previous research has not looked extensively into gender, as I have stated in previous blog posts, I focused extensively on African American history. I have specifically looked at slavery before this point in time and am planning to look at crime and punishment and its impact on race. So I found this article to be extremely interesting. This particular article looks at, as the name implies, the treatment of women in convict camps throughout the South in the years following emancipation. The specific text mining tool I used was Voyant, which creates neat little word clouds with the larger words being the most frequently used and the smaller being used less. The words that were used very often included women 98 times, American 71 times, black 68 times, violence 68 times, and female 64 times.

So why are these words and numbers important? These words and numbers can shape our understanding about the article or any article we choose to text mine. Through text mining we can get an understanding of what words, concepts, or ideas the author or historian find particularly important. For Talitha LeFlouria, a professor of African and African American studies at the University of Virginia, she clearly cares about the plight of African Americans, women, and those who in those two groups were sent to jail, prison, or convict camps following emancipation. In a way these individuals were being subjected to a second or third form of slavery, in the form of the convict camps, as well as the Jim Crow laws. We also gain an understanding from text mining tools like Voyant of the importance of an issue in a given book or article.  While it all may be important because they wouldn’t cover it if it wasn’t important, there author or historian may find one topic more important over another.

As a tool Voyant and similar tools are very valuable to aid historians in their research. As previously stated, these tools help historians assess what other historians or authors might put the most importance on in their articles or prioritize by mentioning it more frequently. Lastly, “distant reading” is using digital tools and technology to actively read much like we did for this assignment.

Talitha L. LeFlouria. "“Under the Sting of the Lash”: Gendered Violence, Terror, and Resistance in the South's Convict Camps." The Journal of African American History 100, no. 3 (2015): 366-84. doi:10.5323/jafriamerhist.100.3.0366.