“Liberté, égalité, and fraternité in the Lesser Antilles ? Imperial Toponymy, Slavery and Revolutionary Cartography in the Caribbean”
In his seminal work on the theory of historical cartography, The Sovereign Map, Christian Jacob writes that “toponymy allows language and writing to invade the map with one of their most important functions, that of naming…; the toponym is a signature, a claim of precedence and of symbolic ownership, …” and in assigning toponyms, “the cartographer creates a world; not the natural world but a cultural world.”
One such cultural world is embodied in the revolutionary toponyms assigned to French maps of France’s colonies in the Caribbean during the 1790s, as exemplified by an exceptional 1793 manuscript map of the island of Saint Lucia, entitled “Carte géométrique et géographique de l'île de Sainte-Lucie La Fidèle.” The map’s toponyms powerfully connect the island to a revolutionary world unfolding across the Atlantic Ocean in France. In this paper, I explore the confusion and contradictions between the emancipatory names deployed on this map and the island’s identity as a slave colony which are, I argue, rooted in a much longer European cartographic practice of the imperial renaming of Indigenous landscapes.
Register and Request Paper
This event is free, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.
Register and Request PaperAbout the Map History Seminar Series
The Map History Seminar aims to support interdisciplinary research in the history of maps and mapping in any period or specialty. With scholars in many different fields, we hope to foster lively discussions and explore new and exciting scholarship that engages with the history of maps and mapping. The seminar uses a workshop model where attendees will read a pre-circulated paper from the presenter and attend ready to discuss. Some meetings will be virtual and some in person.