"Mastering the Niger: James MacQueen’s African... " Topic

…Geography & the Struggle over Atlantic Slavery.

"How can you know about somewhere you've never been? This predicament is at the heart of David Lambert's superb new book, Mastering the Niger: James MacQueen's African Geography and the Struggle over Atlantic Slavery. In 1841 the Scottish geographer and proslavery propagandist James MacQueen published A New Map of Africa. MacQueen had never visited the continent. He had however spent over ten years working as a plantation manager in Grenada. As a proslavery campaigner, MacQueen dismissed metropolitan abolitionists on the basis that they could not understand the conditions of West Indian slavery from afar. Yet at the same time, MacQueen sought to piece together his African geography whilst sitting in a Glasgow study. With this map, and this paradox, Lambert opens his impressive account of the entangled relationship between geographical knowledge and Atlantic slavery.

Certainly not a biography, Mastering the Niger is nonetheless centred around the life and work of MacQueen. Born in late 18th-century Lanarkshire, MacQueen departed for Grenada aged 19. There he managed the Westerhall Estate until his return to Scotland in 1810. MacQueen spent the rest of his life defending both West Indian slavery and his account of the geography of Africa. Lambert convincingly shows that the two were not unrelated. Chief amongst MacQueen's geographical claims was that the River Niger terminated in the Atlantic Ocean. With the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, West Indian slave owners were keen to preserve their advantage over the United States and other rivals. If the Niger terminated in the Atlantic, then it potentially provided a route through which to establish ‘legitimate commerce' with the African interior and stem the supply of slaves. As Lambert explains, ‘It was precisely because slavery was effective on Caribbean plantations that its continued supply to the colonies of Britain's imperial rivals posed a threat to the British West Indies' (p. 36).

Whilst we know plenty about leading abolitionist figures such as Zachary Macaulay, there are few detailed studies of the pro-slavery movement. Such a dichotomy can only be sustained under the ahistorical premise that abolition came as a result of inevitable moral progress. The focus on MacQueen, a pretty unsavoury figure, is therefore a welcome corrective. Mastering the Niger illustrates how both anti-slavery and pro-slavery rhetoric developed in relation to one another. When MacQueen deployed statistics and tables, campaigners like Macaulay had little option but to respond in kind…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Fascinating history.

However, can you tell me exactly, what relevance _at_all_ this post has for miniature wargamming.

Take your time.

JohnG

Same as this…

"The Nazis have since created a serious problem for Political Scientists. Given they were very, very bad, they are often used as benchmark Baddies. It is virtually impossible to have a rational discussion on Nazism in the public media, and quite difficult in academia.

There was a very good ABC* Big Ideas podcast about this recently, with an interesting discussion about Mussolini.

link

Cheers,
JohnG
*Australian Broadcast Corporation"

And don't take any time.

Amicalement
Armand