{"id":61,"date":"2010-11-11T20:58:04","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T20:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rring.wp.trincoll.edu\/?p=61"},"modified":"2011-12-13T20:49:07","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T20:49:07","slug":"the-west-indian-colonies-in-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/2010\/11\/11\/the-west-indian-colonies-in-context\/","title":{"rendered":"The West Indian colonies in context"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>[Posted by Jan Conrad Todorski (Trinity ’10, [MA, History])<\/p>\n

While doing research in the Watkinson Library on the Seven Year’s War, I stumbled upon an amazing map that helped me put the world of the past into perspective.\u00a0 My purpose was to discover details that are missing from modern maps.\u00a0 The physical, or scientific, accuracy of the map was not as important to me as how the people of the time saw their place in the larger scheme of things.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0found what I was looking for–a large fold-out map attached inside the back cover of volume five of the History of the West Indies<\/em>, by Bryan Edwards.\u00a0 \u00a0The History<\/em>was originally published in two volumes in 1793.\u00a0 In 1801, the work was expanded to five volumes and was “illustrated by maps and plates.”\u00a0 The Watkinson has the later edition!\u00a0 This was a godsend for me.\u00a0 With the help of one of the librarians, I managed to open and unfold the map.\u00a0 It was huge and covered half of the table I was working at.<\/p>\n

The impressive physical size of the map helped to place the eighteenth century world of the West Indies into context.\u00a0 The islands of the West Indies were isolated–from each other and the rest of the world–by vast expanses of water.\u00a0 The western Atlantic Ocean is to the north and the Caribbean Sea is to the south (one the map these areas are huge).\u00a0 Today, the existence of “space” seems so obvious that it cannot possibly be important.\u00a0 But, in times past, it was.\u00a0 In our “globalized” world of fast and constant communications, we easily forget what a challenge travel was for people.\u00a0 Maps did not diminish the space between places; they made it easier for people to understand and prepare for the expense of time and endurance that long-distance travel demanded.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The map is as accurate as you would want a map to be.\u00a0 Stretching out in a long arc–from southern Florida to the northeastern coast of South America–the West Indies connect to each other, and the rest of the world, by one thing only: knowledge of their coastlines.\u00a0 The map depicts, in minute detail, all of the shoals and reefs surrounding the islands.\u00a0 Each coastline is annotated with the names of landmarks, havens, capes, and other points of reference.\u00a0 The names are printed so close together that they are almost impossible to read!<\/p>\n

Eighteenth century travel by sea was all about knowledge of coastlines, shores, and harbors.\u00a0 This map clearly shows this.\u00a0 Standing at the table, and looking down at the map, the islands seem like single-cell organisms, with the crowded writing along the coastlines resembling mats of ganglion reaching out to close the distance between each organism. Without knowledge of coastlines, travel by sea was impossible; a fact the map vigorously demonstrates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The engraved pictures that accompany the History<\/em> come as a jolt to the modern viewer.\u00a0 One print, “The voyage of the Sable Venus, from Angola to the West Indies,” is a fanciful wish-fulfillment dressed up as a neo-classical interpretation of a contemporary poem.\u00a0 Pardon my poor attempt at classification [see an online discussion here: http:\/\/www.jungnewyork.com\/venus.shtml<\/a>].\u00a0 These prints were included in the History<\/em> to embellish the status of the island’s proprietors.\u00a0 In so doing, the prints project to the outer world a false and biased view of what life was like on the British Islands.\u00a0 The island’s proprietors were able to publish a view of the islands that they wanted the outside world to see.\u00a0 The map, however, tells a different story.\u00a0 Ocean-going travel at the time was time consuming, expensive, and dangerous.\u00a0 In 1801, there were few people outside the British West Indies in a position to contradict the view of the islands that the proprietors chose to publish.<\/p>\n

[Curator’s Note:\u00a0 The Watkinson holds the following editions of The history, civil and commercial, of the British West Indies <\/em>by Bryan Edwards (1743-1800): Dublin, 1793 (2 vols.); London, 1794 (3 vols.); London, 1801 (3 vols); and London, 1818-19 (5 vols plus an atlas).\u00a0 Mr. Todorski refers to the atlas volume of this last edition (1818-19).]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Posted by Jan Conrad Todorski (Trinity ’10, [MA, History]) While doing research in the Watkinson Library on the Seven Year’s War, I stumbled upon an amazing map that helped me put the world of the past into perspective.\u00a0 My purpose was to discover details that are missing from modern maps.\u00a0 The physical, or scientific, accuracy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}