Africans in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: A Working Dataset, Version 1

This working dataset documents known or probable African and African-descended individuals connected to the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It includes 32 records based on 37 published, archival, visual, and secondary sources. The dataset records names and variants, social status, places, dates, source references, terminology used in the sources, and short biographical or contextual notes. Version 1.0 is intended as a working research resource rather than a closed catalogue. The dataset preserves uncertainty where the evidence is fragmentary and distinguishes between source terminology, scholarly interpretation, and modern place normalisation. The package includes the main Excel workbook, CSV and JSON exports, documentation, controlled vocabulary, a changelog, and a validation report.