It is possible to carry out research on some of these subjects in the NRS, which holds the records of Scottish courts and churches, and some estate papers relating to plantations owned by enslavers. Research is also carried out in Scottish archives into other forms and aspects of slavery, for example the concepts of free and unfree status of women and serfs in medieval Scotland transportation to the colonies of rebels during the religious wars and of criminals bonded labour in the early modern period and the enslavement of Scots by North African corsairs in the seventeenth century. Some researchers are interested in information about enslaved individuals or former enslaved people, while others are interested in conditions or events on particular plantations, slave voyages, or the abolition movement. It also mentions some other Scottish archives relating to Scotland's involvement in the trade and its abolition. This guide deals primarily with aspects of the transatlantic slave trade and records in the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

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