Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Map of the Leeward Islands

Engaging, though incorrect, map of colonial claims in the Leeward Islands of the West Indies.

As sailors began to master the trans-Atlantic crossing in the 16th and 17th centuries, it quickly became known that one of the fastest routes from the African coast brought ships to a large island chain in the southeastern Caribbean. Prevailing winds in the region blew from east to west, so islands on either side of the route became known as the Windward and Leeward chains, based on their relative position to the ship’s arrival. The latter is depicted on this map, which uses bright color to identify the islands’ respective colonial occupiers (British in red, French in yellow, Dutch in green).

Text blocks surrounding the map provide further information on the geography and history of each island, including the process of territorial acquisition. Though the island of St. Bartholomew is credited to the Swedes, it is colored in the distinctive green of a Dutch possession. The text also details the extensive economic reliance on African labor, and the overwhelming numerical superiority of black to white inhabitants. The map was engraved by J. Yeager and issued as sheet number 45 in the 1826 edition of Carey & Lea’s Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas.

This important American publication was issued in six separate editions and three different languages between 1822 and 1827. It was heavily influenced by an earlier European atlas by Emmanuel Las Cases (published under the pseudonym A. Lesage.), which inspired the format of a base map surrounded by blocks of informative text and tables of statistics.

Henry Carey, a political economist and the son of prominent publisher Matthew Carey, and his brother-in-law Isaac Lea incorporated this novel theme into their atlas, which focused entirely on the countries of the Western Hemisphere. It was issued at a time of tremendous political change in both North and South America, and the detailed maps accompanied by extensive text provide a unique, often insightful, perspective on the problems and possibilities of the Americas in the first quarter of the 19th century.

Wheat, C. I. (2004). Mapping the Transmississippi West: 1540-1861. Mansfield Centre (CT): Martino Publishing. #348

Egli, L. G., & Phillips, P. L. (1974). A list of geographical atlases in the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress. #1373