In Mastering the Niger, David Lambert recalls Scotsman James MacQueen
(1778-1870) and his publication of A New Map of Africa in 1841 to show
that Atlantic slavery--as a practice of subjugation, a source of wealth,
and a focus of political struggle--was entangled with the production,
circulation, and reception of geographical knowledge. The British empire
banned the slave trade in 1807 and abolished slavery itself in 1833,
creating a need for a new British imperial economy. Without ever setting
foot on the continent, MacQueen took on the task of solving the "Niger
problem," that is, to successfully map the course of the river and its
tributaries, and thus breathe life into his scheme for the exploration,
colonization, and commercial exploitation of West Africa. Lambert
illustrates how MacQueen's geographical research began, four decades
before the publication of the New Map, when he was managing a sugar
estate on the West Indian colony of Grenada. There MacQueen encountered
slaves with firsthand knowledge of West Africa, whose accounts would
form the basis of his geographical claims. Lambert examines the
inspirations and foundations for MacQueen's geographical theory as well
as its reception, arguing that Atlantic slavery and ideas for
alternatives to it helped produce geographical knowledge, while
geographical discourse informed the struggle over slavery.
