The Bight of Benin.

Citation: Drawings of Western Africa, circa 1820-1850, Accession #14357. Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA #22 in collection Map of West African coastal areas, mid-19th cent. Watercolor, pencil, and ink. This map highlights the Bight of Benin, but it shows much more. Extending east and southeast from the Volta River and Cape St. Paul (Ghana) to Cape Lopez and the Nazareth River (today, the Ogoou/Ogowa River) in present-day Gabon, this roughly drawn map identifies rivers and their estuaries, including the Niger Delta, and shows various geographical locales in the Bights of Benin and Biafra as well as the larger Gulf of Guinea with its offshore islands, e.g., Fernando Po, Princes Island, St. Thomas (today, Bioko, Principe, Sao Tome). Two large trees (mangroves?) dominate the scene. See other image references “UVA” on this site. For background to this and other UVA images, see image reference UVA01. http://slaveryimages.org/details.php?categorynum=1&categoryName=Maps:%20Africa,%20New%20World,%20Slave%20Trade&theRecord=32&recordCount=34 Contains images from the coastal areas of West Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Gold Coast, the Bight of Benin, the Cameroons and Corisco Bay. Both the life and customs of the Africans, and incidents and places associated with the slave trade are rendered in detail, with penciled annotations. Scenes depict slave factories including Cape Coast Castle and Elmina; a palisaded village; dwellings for Liberated Africans; Kru people; locations and structures of various Christian missions including the house of Jacob Rambo; African customs including execution of a witch; a burial, and mourning; occupations; dwellings; weapons, furniture, baskets, and other implements of daily life; edible plants; and maps and topographical drawings. Drawings (which are unsigned and undated), apparently by at least two artists, have been attributed, on the basis of uncertain evidence, to John Revey, a freeborn African American, who served several mission stations under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. Revey, who died in 1842, did have drafting abilities and is credited with two maps currently in the Maryland Historical Society. Internal evidence on at least two of the drawings indicate dates later than 1849 and 1850. Three of the drawings have been printed as engravings in missionary accounts. 32 drawings : watercolor, crayon, ink; 58 x 76cm. and smaller.