1866 Lazaridou Map of the Americas (in Greek!) w/ Freebooter Republic of Fredonia, Texas

This is a rare hand-colored 1866 Greek-language map of the Americas, produced by Herakles Lazaridou. Although entirely in Greek, this map is fascinating as one of the few maps to name the 'Republic of Fredonia' (1826 - 1827), a short-lived freebooter state in Texas.

The Republic of Fredonia

The Republic of Fredonia, often cited as the Fredonian Rebellion (December 21, 1826 - January 23, 1827) was the first attempt by Anglo settlers in Texas to secede from Mexico. The settlers, led by Empresario Haden Edwards (1771 - 1849), declared independence from Mexican Texas and created the Republic of Fredonia near Nacogdoches. The short-lived republic encompassed the land the Mexican government granted to Edwards in 1825 and areas previously settled. Edwards's actions and conflict with established residents, led the Mexican government to revoke Edwards's grant. The Fredonian Republic was short lived and appeared on very few maps.

The unusual term 'Fredonia' itself dates to an earlier effort spearheaded by Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764 - 1831) to renamed the United States. The term 'Fredonia' is derived from a latinized variant derived from the entomological underpinnings of the word 'Freedom'. Mitchill argued that in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War, the United States needed an all-encompassing national identity. Writing to Noah Webster, Mitchill wrote, 'we cannot be national in feeling and in fact until we have a national name.' The idea never caught on, for which rites Carl Wheat, 'all us Fredish men should be duly thankful.'

Curious Elements

Other items of interest include Oregon, here labelled as both a city (Ορεγόνη) roughly Portland, as well as a territory to the north (in fact, the Washington Territory). Somewhat anachronistically, 'Canada' is used here only for the lands along the St. Lawrence River instead of the entire territory comprising the present-day country (here as 'New Britain'), while the state of California remains 'New California.' It is likely that Lazaridou was working with one or more atlases in a foreign language as a basis, explaining these oddities. On the other hand, some of the errors present in an earlier edition of the map, such as the labeling of the Missouri River as the Mississippi River, have been corrected.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by Herakles Lazaridou (Ηρακλέους Λαζαρίδου) in 1866. Its provenance is unknown, but it may have appeared in Lazaridou's Geographic Atlas (Γεωγραφικός άτλας). This map is not known to be held by any institution and has only been on the market once in recent years, in an earlier edition (1861).