The CSI:D team has datafied 28,000+ inquests taken in South Carolina, Missouri, and Virginia over the course of the nineteenth century. As the preceding, Count the Dead, section lays bare, each of the state samples has its own strengths and weaknesses. In Data at a Glance, visitors have a chance to explore the shape of the data itself.

This site as a whole contends that Death does not stalk us all equally; as humans we are the canaries in our own coal mine, dying with an inequality that is particularly visible at the morgue. In Cause of Death by Race you can explore how, over the course of the nineteenth century, we died differently by race. You can also explore how we died differently by gender and enslaved status. In Cause of Death Over Time we seek to show the evolution of the coroner’s office itself as it (gradually and imperfectly) morphed from a governmental body focused on criminal justice (and support of the slave regime) into something grudgingly and gradually focused on public health and the collective longevity of us all.

NEXT: Inquest Data at a Glance.