Voyant is a wonderful tool for researchers to use when analyzing frequencies of words within documents. By using Voyant to explore slave narratives, I found that “dey”, “br”, and “dem” were commonly used by former slaves. I also noticed that certain slang used by freedmen were popular in certain regions of the U.S. than others. For instance “dey” is not as common in Indiana, Kansas and many other northern states as it is in Mississippi and Texas.

To get started in Voyant add the url of a document you wish to analyze to the text box that appears after opening the following link. https://voyant-tools.org/

Once you add the url and click reveal you will see the wonderful tools available to you in Voyant. A world cloud will appear in the Cirrus box and a line graph shall appear in the trend box. Both of these tools as well as others will show you the frequencies of the words in your document.
The reader box will allow you to examine your document in detail. By hovering over a word you can see how frequent it was used in your document but you must first select your document by first clicking summary in the bottom left corner and then clicking the document you plan to analyze further. After doing this your document will appear in the box below the reader tab.
In the bottom right corner there are also context, bubblelines, and correlation tabs. These tools are also helpful.
Overall, Voyant is a great tool which once you learn how to use, can be of great help to you.