1716 Hermann Moll Map of West Africa

A nice example of Herman Moll's c. 1716 map of the 'Guinea Coast.' Coverage embraces most of the West African coast, from Mali to the Congo. It is an illustrative representation of the state of European geographic knowledge about Africa at the time, and the commercial concerns which motivated the search for said geographic knowledge.

A Closer Look

This map depicts the Gulf of Guinea and the West African coast from Mali (here as Melli) to the Congo or Zaire River (here as Zara). The most noticeable feature is the abundance of European fortresses and trading posts (factories) along the coast, especially on the Gold Coast. Rivers and islands are well-mapped, while information about the interior is cursory and speculative. Some areas are described simply, such as 'villages,' 'fishin' town,' and 'here are gold mines.' Scale is provided in English miles, while London serves as the Prime Meridian. Moll maintains 'Ethiopian Sea' for the South Atlantic, a convention which would disappear from maps in the 19th century.

The Slave Trade

An inset map of Sherbro Island and surrounding waters is provided at bottom, with soundings and shoals marked out. This island was one of the main points of departure in the transatlantic slave trade in the early 18th century. The English created a monopoly (the Royal African Company) to manage trade with this part of Africa, but it was supplanted around the time of this map's production, creating a free-for-all among private traders that only increased the scale and brutality of the slave trade. After the British outlawed the slave trade in 1808, their facilities on the island were used for policing continued human trafficking. Later, the African American businessman Paul Cuffe developed a scheme to settle freedmen on the island, hoping that they would be able to dominate trade between the region and the new American Republic. The effort ran into difficulties but was an important precursor to the American Colonization Society and the foundation of Liberia.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

These coasts were first visited by Europeans when the Portuguese reached the area in the 15th century, after which they returned regularly to trade. Several sites along the coast, including the mouths of the Sierra Leone (here as Sierra de Leon), Sherbro, and Calabar (Callebar) Rivers, were the main locations of trade with Europeans. Although trade included various goods, as indicated by the naming of stretches of the coast (ivory, gold, grain), it was increasingly dominated by the slave trade by the 18th century.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by Herman Moll, though its exact provenance is unclear. It was originally made for Moll's Atlas Geographus, published between 1711 - 1717, but the pagination here (page 311, Vol. II) rules out that work, as well as his Forty-two new maps of Asia, Africa, and America..., all engrav'd, according to the latest observations and Churchill's A Collection of voyages and travels. Perhaps due to its comprehensiveness regarding European trading posts, the map continued to be used in various publications throughout the 18th century. Regardless of the source, it is only cataloged independently in the holdings of four institutions and is scarce to the market.