Thiago Krause
@thiagokrause.bsky.social
Associate Professor of History & African American Studies, Wayne State University. Brazilian historian in the US. Interested in LLMs for research and wary of its impacts on learning and society. Opinions are my own and do not reflect my employer. PT/ENG.
Ok, this is funny. I uploaded a somewhat bad pdf scan of a microfilm (just five pages), and Gemini got completely obssessed with one word, despite "Thinking" being set to low. It has been over 10 minutes and Gemini repeatedly says it will move but it apparently cannot.
November 26, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Ok, this is funny. I uploaded a somewhat bad pdf scan of a microfilm (just five pages), and Gemini got completely obssessed with one word, despite "Thinking" being set to low. It has been over 10 minutes and Gemini repeatedly says it will move but it apparently cannot.
Gemini did extremely well with clear Spanish and Portuguese handwriting - note how it cleanly transcribed the marginalia in that 1598 Spanish document.
November 26, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Gemini did extremely well with clear Spanish and Portuguese handwriting - note how it cleanly transcribed the marginalia in that 1598 Spanish document.
I think the challenge is less linguistical than computer vision + hard hands. I do not read Danish (which I assume is a language with not that much training data), but this LLM transcription seems fairly decent at a cursory glance (I already sent it to a Danish historian for inspection, of course)
November 26, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I think the challenge is less linguistical than computer vision + hard hands. I do not read Danish (which I assume is a language with not that much training data), but this LLM transcription seems fairly decent at a cursory glance (I already sent it to a Danish historian for inspection, of course)
I've been talking to @marinelives.bsky.social and Mark about Gemini 3's transcription capabilities, and I have to admit I'm impressed for the first with a general-purpose LLM transcription skills. I gave it a 1652 HCA deposition - ok handwriting, ok picture, and the transcription was fairly decent.
November 20, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I've been talking to @marinelives.bsky.social and Mark about Gemini 3's transcription capabilities, and I have to admit I'm impressed for the first with a general-purpose LLM transcription skills. I gave it a 1652 HCA deposition - ok handwriting, ok picture, and the transcription was fairly decent.
Made my wife watch “Superman” (2025). Not sure our marriage will survive that.
November 15, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Made my wife watch “Superman” (2025). Not sure our marriage will survive that.
Looking forward to getting my copy!
November 13, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Looking forward to getting my copy!
It is extraordinary that the best work I've ever read offering a hollistic view of the eighteenth-century sugar market, largely transcending methodological nationalism, was written in 1946 by Alice Canabrava, the first woman to become a professor of Economic History in Brazil
"O Açúcar nas Antilhas"
"O Açúcar nas Antilhas"
November 4, 2025 at 3:26 PM
It is extraordinary that the best work I've ever read offering a hollistic view of the eighteenth-century sugar market, largely transcending methodological nationalism, was written in 1946 by Alice Canabrava, the first woman to become a professor of Economic History in Brazil
"O Açúcar nas Antilhas"
"O Açúcar nas Antilhas"
Great book, I’m really enjoying it! Even relevant for today, on the relationship between free trade, labor, and state power.
November 3, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Great book, I’m really enjoying it! Even relevant for today, on the relationship between free trade, labor, and state power.
Wow! I am impressed.
November 1, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Wow! I am impressed.
Hah! My article with Chris Ebert (CUNY) got accepted at the AHR. Research started in January 2020. I presented the first draft in 2023, we did a lot more archival research and submitted it in May 2024, got a R&R in January, and resubmitted in July. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way!
October 29, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Hah! My article with Chris Ebert (CUNY) got accepted at the AHR. Research started in January 2020. I presented the first draft in 2023, we did a lot more archival research and submitted it in May 2024, got a R&R in January, and resubmitted in July. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way!
Sim, Tobago, 1654-90, com interrupções. Mas também tentaram participar do tráfico de africanos escravizados e obter permissão pra comerciar com o Brasil... Por isso estou curioso. Também comerciaram com Sao Tomé.
October 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Sim, Tobago, 1654-90, com interrupções. Mas também tentaram participar do tráfico de africanos escravizados e obter permissão pra comerciar com o Brasil... Por isso estou curioso. Também comerciaram com Sao Tomé.
Very important in the English Atlantic!
October 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Very important in the English Atlantic!
Ah, FamilySearch. I've been there. (though that is not their fault, to be fair).
October 20, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Ah, FamilySearch. I've been there. (though that is not their fault, to be fair).
The model and the custom instructions also matter immensely. See mine, with the simplest prompt possible.
October 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The model and the custom instructions also matter immensely. See mine, with the simplest prompt possible.
If anyone finds themselves with too much free time next Friday and an inexplicable urge to learn more about the sugar and tobacco markets in seventeenth-century Europe, I’m presenting something. It is an attempt to offer a transimperial view that uses Brazilian commodities as a case study.
October 17, 2025 at 6:33 PM
If anyone finds themselves with too much free time next Friday and an inexplicable urge to learn more about the sugar and tobacco markets in seventeenth-century Europe, I’m presenting something. It is an attempt to offer a transimperial view that uses Brazilian commodities as a case study.
Fun, but irrelevant to me. Let's proceed to the next letter (bear in mind that there are over 800 pages of letters). "Francisco Salvador Junior," definitely another Portuguese Jewish Merchant in London. Name sounds familiar from somewhere. I go look at the Amsterdam notarial records and... Voilá!
October 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Fun, but irrelevant to me. Let's proceed to the next letter (bear in mind that there are over 800 pages of letters). "Francisco Salvador Junior," definitely another Portuguese Jewish Merchant in London. Name sounds familiar from somewhere. I go look at the Amsterdam notarial records and... Voilá!
"Jacob Mendes da Costa" in London. Certainly a Portuguese Jew, sounds familiar. I googled it and he was a merchant involved in a scandalous proceeding against his beloved's family, because the father apparently was adamantly opposed to them marrying, despite them being in love since they were kids.
October 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
"Jacob Mendes da Costa" in London. Certainly a Portuguese Jew, sounds familiar. I googled it and he was a merchant involved in a scandalous proceeding against his beloved's family, because the father apparently was adamantly opposed to them marrying, despite them being in love since they were kids.
Sometimes it is very hard to avoid getting distracted by random things. I'm reading the correspondence of Luc Magon de la Balue for a paper on the trade of enslaved Africans. from the archives départementales d'Ille-et-Vilaine because he was slightly interested in trading with Brazil. Then I find...
October 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Sometimes it is very hard to avoid getting distracted by random things. I'm reading the correspondence of Luc Magon de la Balue for a paper on the trade of enslaved Africans. from the archives départementales d'Ille-et-Vilaine because he was slightly interested in trading with Brazil. Then I find...
Very hard to choose which primary sources to assign for a class on the British Caribbean from 1763 to 1807! Decided on the Jamaican petition, the famous Cutlers 1789 petition, and extracts of Cugoano (1787) and Robinson's awesome "Slavery inconsistent with the Spirity of Christianity" (1789).
October 16, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Very hard to choose which primary sources to assign for a class on the British Caribbean from 1763 to 1807! Decided on the Jamaican petition, the famous Cutlers 1789 petition, and extracts of Cugoano (1787) and Robinson's awesome "Slavery inconsistent with the Spirity of Christianity" (1789).
I've been doing a lot of short primary source analysis with my students this semester, but some told me they struggle with the vocabulary. I started annotating them, but:
1) It is quite boring to do so systematically.
2) As a non-native speaker, I do not always know which words they don't know!
1) It is quite boring to do so systematically.
2) As a non-native speaker, I do not always know which words they don't know!
October 16, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I've been doing a lot of short primary source analysis with my students this semester, but some told me they struggle with the vocabulary. I started annotating them, but:
1) It is quite boring to do so systematically.
2) As a non-native speaker, I do not always know which words they don't know!
1) It is quite boring to do so systematically.
2) As a non-native speaker, I do not always know which words they don't know!
He states he is morally against the trade. He just acknowledges that the argument won’t fly. Postlethwayt was referring to this sentiment in his 1746 pro-RAC pamphlet: “Many are prejudiced against this trade, thinking it barbarous, inhuman, and unlawful for a Christian country to trade in Blacks”
October 16, 2025 at 4:20 PM
He states he is morally against the trade. He just acknowledges that the argument won’t fly. Postlethwayt was referring to this sentiment in his 1746 pro-RAC pamphlet: “Many are prejudiced against this trade, thinking it barbarous, inhuman, and unlawful for a Christian country to trade in Blacks”
Oh, it’s an awesome book. It’s actually in the book pile in my office! Still, mostly focuses on the period 1750-1789. Also in the book pile is Richardson’s last book, which is a good chapter on the late seventeenth century antislavery.
October 16, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Oh, it’s an awesome book. It’s actually in the book pile in my office! Still, mostly focuses on the period 1750-1789. Also in the book pile is Richardson’s last book, which is a good chapter on the late seventeenth century antislavery.
It does, although I think the critique is more limited than she makes it to be, as I wrote in my review.
October 16, 2025 at 8:13 AM
It does, although I think the critique is more limited than she makes it to be, as I wrote in my review.
One phenomenon I find it understudied (or maybe I'm just ignorant about it) is hostility to slavery prior to 1750. You can find odd references here and there that suggests it was relatively widespread, such as this critique of the trade in enslaved Africans from 1746, but not much work on it.
October 15, 2025 at 11:51 PM
One phenomenon I find it understudied (or maybe I'm just ignorant about it) is hostility to slavery prior to 1750. You can find odd references here and there that suggests it was relatively widespread, such as this critique of the trade in enslaved Africans from 1746, but not much work on it.
I always make that point. On an aside, I've cited your evaluation of Columbus as "replacement-level character" in my lectures for years (with proper credit, of course).
October 13, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I always make that point. On an aside, I've cited your evaluation of Columbus as "replacement-level character" in my lectures for years (with proper credit, of course).