North America Sheet XIII Parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama & Florida.

SDUK map of a large portion of the antebellum southeastern United States.

The geographic area of partial states shown on this map may seem arbitrary to a modern audience. But to an English reader in the 1830’s, the region represents a cluster of important coastal fortifications from Pensacola to New Orleans as well as large areas of rich agricultural lands – primarily cotton for export to the textile mills of Britain.

A contemporary American may be drawn to entirely different features, such as the presence of Native American tribes and sparsely populated, scattered towns. However, the image can be misleading. By the time of publication (1833), the Choctaw Nation had already officially ceded their claim to the remaining 10,000,000+ acres across the American south and were in the midst of their last great wave of migration west to Indian Territory. Along the way, tribes experienced terrible hardships such as starvation, cholera, and harsh weather – part of the larger process of forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears.

The map was engraved by John & Charles Walker and published by Baldwin & Cradock in London on behalf of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK). The SDUK was a liberal London organization established in 1826 with the aim of providing inexpensive educational material, including maps, to the increasingly literate public of England. It produced several atlases of impressive detail and quality before shuttering its doors in 1848.