Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Map of the Windward Islands

Interesting (and incorrect) map of the Windward Islands in 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 former is depicted on this map, which uses bright color to identify the islands’ respective colonial occupiers (British in red, French in yellow). Trinidad, Barbados, Tobago, Grenada and St. Lucia are shown as English possessions, whereas St. Lucia and Martinique are depicted as belonging to France.

Text surrounding the map confirms the status and history of territorial acquisition, though it incorrectly attributes St. Lucia to France as a result of the Treaty of Paris in 1814. In reality, Britain retained control of the island until 1979, when it finally achieved full independence. The map was drawn by Fielding Lucas, Jr. and engraved by Boyd. It was issued as sheet number 44 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