West Indies

Detailed map of the Caribbean issued near the height of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

This interesting map of the Caribbean and Central America was published at a period of tremendous commercial activity in the region. European mercantilism was running at full steam, and huge amounts of labor were necessary to operate large scale plantations and mines. Indigenous populations had been wiped out from war and disease, so thousands (eventually, millions) of captured African slaves were transported across the Atlantic to meet local demand.

This map is a succinct geographic overview of the West Indies, as they were known, and labels many of the region’s primary towns, forts, and geographic features. Differences in place names reflect ongoing colonial antagonism (for example, French names on the Gulf Coast eventually transition to Spanish).

A cartouche in the upper right visualizes the racial structure of the aforementioned Transatlantic trade, with a black slave carrying bundles of goodes, with bales of cotton and barrels of tobacco stacked in the background.