I think I need to start with a quick shout out to the Uber driver that inspired this blog post. It all began with a ride to work that quickly went south when my Uber driver went on a rant about blackness in America. The lecture spanned many different topics and ended with her explaining to me that Kanye was indeed correct, slavery was a choice and slaves in The United States chose to remain in bondage long after her ancestors fought for their freedom in Haiti. Now there are many reasons why slavery was different in these two regions that I could have mentioned, but this all occurred before my Friday morning dose of caffeine. I had neither the energy nor the desire to engage. It did, however, lead to an interesting conversation with coworkers on the topic. In that discussion one major reason I cited for success in Haiti was the difference in geography between many Caribbean islands and the American South. Although these maps were not created to argue for or against people’s opinions on slavery, I thought it was an interesting way of telling a story that is often overlooked.

After reading the Monmonier How to Lie with Maps piece I took a look at the Slave Revolt in Jamaica 1760-1761 and the Atlas of Historical Geography of the United States mapping projects. It was interesting to see how the two projects tried to correct the pitfalls that map makers can fall into. The atlas used computers to their advantage to fix map projection issues with their digital georectified maps. Both maps were able to add a lot of background information in the text section that is unavailable when looking at a map on paper.

I found the Jamaican Revolt of 1760 project to be more transparent about their process. This could just be because of content. The atlas is more a digital representation of empirical data, wheres as the revolt map is trying to recount a historical event. This could also just be an example of two different kinds of mapping projects. The atlas digitized and enhanced 700 pre existing maps whereas the Jamaican revolt map was created from other maps and first hand accounts of a historical event. The makers of the revolt map were very aware of uncertainties in their project. For example, the map can only represent space and time from the slaveholders’ point of view and accounts of the skirmishes often varied greatly. They also share reasoning behind the design of the map and why certain elements like the faded dot that moves to chart the possible path of rebel forces were chosen.

All in all this was a great exploration into what forms digital mapping can take, as well as adding to my memory bank for the next time my Uber driver goes on a rant.