1788 Bonne Map of Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas

This is Rigobert Bonne's 1788 map of Cuba, Jamaica, and surrounding islands, prepared for his and Nicolas Desmarest's Atlas encyclopédique. It depicts the islands as the region was undergoing important changes at the end of the 18th century that signaled the coming collapse of slavery and the plantation economy.

A Closer Look

Coverage includes Cuba, Jamaica, nearby surrounding islands (such as the Cayman Islands), and portions of Saint Domonique and the Bahamas. Mountains, rivers, and settlements are depicted in gorgeous detail. Coastal hazards and shoals are indicated. Seven different scales are provided, while longitude is measured from both Paris and the Ferro Meridian.

Historical Context

This map was published as Cuba, Jamaica, and the entire region underwent rapid shifts due to the Seven Years' War, residual inter-imperial competition, slave uprisings, and the Age of Revolutions. During the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763), Cuba was conquered by the British but exchanged in the Treaty of Paris for Florida (which was later reconquered by Spain during the American Revolution). For its part, Jamaica witnessed several slave and maroon uprisings in the second half of the 18th century, harbingers of the end of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery several decades later. Cuba remained an outlier in the region, resisting both independence and abolitionist movements until the late 19th century.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by Rigobert Bonne and engraved by André (given name unknown). It appeared in the second volume of Bonne and Nicolas Desmarest's 1788 edition of the Atlas encyclopédique. As some OCLC listings include digitized copies, the full distribution of the map is difficult to determine, but it is independently cataloged at a handful of institutions in North America and Europe while the entire atlas is more widely distributed.