The Atlantic Ocean by Governor Pownall, F.R.S.
At a glance this map from the late 1700s with its diagrams of the ocean currents seems made for the shipping trade. The sea is mapped with arrows charting directions of ocean currents and winds. A shaded area indicates the “Gulf Stream or Florida Stream”, obviously copied from Benjamin Franklin’s famous Gulf Stream maps of the 1780s. There are the usual wind roses and rhumb lines.
But the real story portrayed on this map relates to a period of inhumane behavior by western Europeans, their American colonists and even the African leaders themselves – the story of slavery. Pownall identifies four ocean tracks from Britain to the Americas on his map. Innocuous enough, but another track is labeled “Course of the French from France to Senegal. Prescribed by the French by order of the Government.” That route was not just for tourists; Senegal was under French influence at the time of this map and was a major source of slaves. Gorée Island, shown off the coast of Senegal, was a major center for the Atlantic slave trade through the 1700s, and millions of Africans were shipped from there to the New World. Another slave center was Fort St. Lewis (Louis), shown at the mouth of the Senegal River. It was the first permanent French settlement in Senegal.
Contemporary faded manuscript notations relate to the slave trade. There is a note in Africa stating: “Whydah Road, lies in Lat. 6°, 27′ N, and from Norris’s Mem. Long: 3° 42′ E”: This statement refers to a 1789 book by Robert Norris, Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomy, an Inland Country of Guiney. To Which Are Added, the Author’s Journey to Abomey, the Capital; and a Short Account of the African Slave Trade. Norris’s Short Account argues the benefits of the slave trade to both Africa and Britain. Bossa Ahadee (also, Tegbesu) inherited the throne upon the death of his slave-trading father, Agaja (also spelled Agadja), and during his reign from 1740 to 1774 did his best to depopulate Africa.
Dahomey was a major location for the Atlantic slave trade, possibly supplying up to 20% of the slaves to the Americas and to Europe (yes, Europeans had black slaves, too). Dahomey’s coast became known as the “Slave Coast” because of the active trade, and appears on some maps as such. Whydah, or Widah on this map, was Dahomey’s only slave port and is now called Ouidah in present-day Benin.
There is also a manuscript route from Liverpool, England which Norris left to go to Africa. Norris himself was a slave trader and visited Bossa Adadee in 1772. Norris was influential in preventing heavy regulation of the slave trade through the early 1790s by his support of slavery during the investigation of the slave trade by the British government and by his defense of the slave trade in his Memoirs. But abolitionists in Britain did not give up. An 1807 act abolished slave trade in the British Empire, but not slavery itself. That act was to follow in 1834.
The Atlantic slave traders, listed in decreasing order of trade volume, were the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the Americans. They had established outposts on the African coast where they purchased slaves from African leaders, one of whom was Bossa Ahadee. Brazil received more slaves from Africa than any other country in the New World (five million). Another five million were sent to the West Indies. It is estimated that a total of 11 million African slaves were delivered live to the New World. Of those, fewer than five percent were delivered to British North America (500,000).
Tales from the Rare Map Cabinet by Luke A Vavra
Stock Number Z13M12
MAP SOLD
Leave a Reply