Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T07:12:39.020Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Alexander Scott: Constructing a Legitimate Geography of the Sahara from a Captivity Narrative, 1821

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2016

Sven D. Outram-Leman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Alexander Scott’s narrative of his captivity in the Sahara in the early nineteenth century presents a curious example of how information of foreign lands was received and legitimized in Britain. Through the input of individuals such as Joseph Banks and James Rennell, Scott’s tale was presented as an authoritative account of the inaccessible West African interior. This article pursues this process of authentication and demonstrates how elements of the editors” preconceived notion of the region colored the subsequent text and associated cartography.

Résumé:

Le récit de la captivité d’Alexander Scott dans le Sahara au début du XIXe siècle constitue un exemple curieux sur la réception et la légitimation en Grande Bretagne d’informations portant sur des contrées lointaines. Grâce au rôle joué par des individus tels que Joseph Banks et James Rennell, l’histoire de Scott fut présentée comme un récit faisant autorité sur l’intérieur des territoires inaccessibles d’Afrique de l’ouest. Cet article poursuit ce processus d’authentification et démontre comment les notions préconçues des éditeurs sur la région eurent une large influence sur le texte et les cartes de Scott.

Type
Critical Source Analysis of European Travelers’ Sources
Information
History in Africa , Volume 43 , June 2016 , pp. 63 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Robert, The Narrative of Robert Adams, an American Sailor, who was Wrecked on the Coast of Africa, in the Year 1810; Was Detained Three Years in Slavery by the Arabs of the Great Desert, and Resided Several Months in the City of Tombuctoo (Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1817).Google Scholar
Arrowsmith, John, The London Atlas of Universal Geography, Exhibiting the Physical & Political Division of the Various Countries of the World, Constructed from Original Materials (London: J. Arrowsmith, 1838).Google Scholar
Baepler, Paul M., “White Slaves, African Masters,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 588–1 (2003), 90–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baepler, Paul M., “The Barbary Captivity Narrative in American Culture,” Early American Literature 39–2 (2004), 217–246.Google Scholar
Barth, Heinrich, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa: Being a Journal of an Expedition Undertaken Under the Auspices of H.B.M.’s Government, in the Years 1849–1855, volume 5 (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1858).Google Scholar
Bassett, Thomas J., and Porter, Philip W.. “‘From the Best Authorities:’ the Mountains of Kong in the Cartography of West Africa,” Journal of African History 32–3 (1991), 367–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boville, Edward W., The Niger Explored (London: Oxford University Press, 1968).Google Scholar
Pratt, Mary L., Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (London: Routledge, 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Christopher L., “The Origins of ‘Legitimate Commerce’,” in: Law, Robin, Schwarz, Suzanne and Strickrodt, Silke (eds.), Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade & Slavery in Atlantic Africa (Suffolk: James Currey, 2013), 138–157.Google Scholar
Colley, Linda, “Going Native, Telling Tales: Captivity, Collaborations and Empire,” Past & Present 168 (2000), 170–193.Google Scholar
Colley, Linda, Captives: Britain, Empire and the World, 1600–1850 (London: Pimlico, 2003).Google Scholar
Craciun, Adriana, “What is an Explorer?,”Eighteenth-Century Studies 45–1 (2011), 29–51.Google Scholar
Curtin, Philip D., The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Actions, 1780–1850 (Volume 1) (London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973).Google Scholar
Hallet, Robin, “The European Approach to the Interior of Africa in the Eighteenth Century,” Journal of African History 4–2 (1963), 191–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallet, Robin, “Introduction,” in: Hallet, Robin (ed.), Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, In Two Volumes, volume 1 (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., 1967), 1–41.Google Scholar
Hallet, Robin, “European Exploration as a Theme in African History,” in: The Exploration of Africa in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries – Proceedings of a Seminar Held on the Occasion of the Mungo Park Bi-Centenary Celebration at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, 3rd and 4th December 1971 (Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, 1972), 1–16.Google Scholar
Heffernan, Michael, “‘A Dream as Frail as Those of Ancient Time:’ the In-Credible Geographies of Timbuctoo,” Environment and Planning D: Science and Space 19 (2007), 203–226.Google Scholar
Jackson, James G., An Account of the Empire of Marocco, and the District of Suse (London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1809).Google Scholar
Kennedy, Dane, The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia (London: Harvard University Press, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Dane, “Introduction: Reinterpreting Exploration,” in: Kennedy, Dane (ed.), Reinterpreting Exploration: the West in the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 1–20.Google Scholar
Lambert, David, Mastering the Niger: James MacQueen’s African Geography and the Struggle over Atlantic Slavery (London: University of Chicago Press, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lander, Richard, and Lander, John, Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger; with a Narrative of a Voyage Down that River to its Termination. In Three Volumes. Illustrated with Engravings and Maps, volume 1 (London: John Murray, 1832).Google Scholar
Lockhart, Jamie B., “In the Raw: Some Reflections on Transcribing and Editing Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton’s Writings on the Borno Mission of 1822–25,” History in Africa 26 (1999), 157–195.Google Scholar
Lydon, Ghislaine, On Trans-Saharan Trails, Islamic Law, Trade Networks, and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Nineteenth Century Western Africa (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).Google Scholar
MacLaren, Ian S., “Explorers’ and Travellers’ Narratives: A Peregrination Through Different Editions,” History in Africa 30 (2003), 213–222.Google Scholar
MacQueen, James, A Geographical and Commercial View of Northern Central Africa: Containing a Particular Account of the Course and Termination of the Great River Niger in the Atlantic Ocean (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1821).Google Scholar
MacQueen, James, A Geographical Survey of Africa: Its Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Productions, States, Populations, &c. (London: B. Fellowes, 1840).Google Scholar
Outram, Dorinda, “On Being Perseus: New Knowledge, Dislocation, and Enlightenment Exploration,” in: Livingstone, David N. and Withers, Charles W.J. (eds.), Geography and Enlightenment (London: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 281–294.Google Scholar
Outram, Dorinda, “Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Enlightenment,” in: Fitzpatrick, Martin, Jones, Peter, Knellwolf, Christina and McCalman, Iain (eds.), The Enlightenment World (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2004), 551–570.Google Scholar
Porter, Roy, The Enlightenment (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990).Google Scholar
Rennell, James, “On the Rate of Travelling, as Performed by Camels; and its Application, as a Scale, to the Purposes of Geography,” Philosophical Transactions 81 (1791), 129–145.Google Scholar
Rennell, James, “Observations on the Geography of Mr. Scott’s Routes, in North Africa,”in: Brewster, Dr. & Jameson, Professor (eds.), The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Exhibiting a View of the Progress of Discovery in Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Natural History, Practical Mechanics, Geography, Navigation, Statistics, and the Fine and Useful Arts, from October 1. 1820, to April 1. 1821, volume 4 (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, 1821), 239.Google Scholar
Riley, James, An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce, Wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, in the Month of August, 1815, with an Account of the Sufferings of her Surviving Officers and Crew, who Were Enslaved by the Wandering Arabs of the Great Africa Desart, or Zahahrah; and Observations Historical, Geographical, &c. Made During the Travels of the Author, While a Slave to the Arabs, and in the Empire of Morocco (Hartford: James Riley, 1817).Google Scholar
Sébe, Berny, “The Making of British and French Legends of Exploration, 1821–1914,” in: Kennedy, Dane (ed.), Reinterpreting Exploration: the West in the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 109–131.Google Scholar
Stern, Philip J., “‘Rescuing the Age from a Charge of Ignorance:’ Gentility, Knowledge, and the British Exploration of Africa in the Later Eighteenth Century,” in: Wilson, Kathleen (ed.), A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660–1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 115–135.Google Scholar
Stern, Philip J., “Exploration and Enlightenment,” in: Kennedy, Dane (ed.), Reinterpreting Exploration: the West in the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 54–79.Google Scholar
Trail, Thomas S., “Account of the Captivity of Alexander Scott, among the Wandering Arabs of the Great African Desert, for a Period of Nearly Six Years. With Geographical Observations on his Routes, and Remarks on the Currents of the Ocean on the North-Western Coast of Africa by Major Rennell, F.R.S. &c. &c. &c.,” in: Brewster, David (ed.), The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 4 (1821), 38–54, 235–246.Google Scholar
Whiters, Charles W.J., “Mapping the Niger, 1798–1832: Trust, Testimony and ‘Ocular Demonstration’ in the Late Enlightenment,” Imago Mundi 56–2 (2004), 170–193.Google Scholar
Whiters, Charles W.J., “Geography, Enlightenment and the Book: Authorship and Audience in Mungo Park’s African Texts,” in: Ogborn, Miles and Withers, Charles W.J. (eds.), Geographies of the Book (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2010), 191–220.Google Scholar
Whiters, Charles W.J., and Livingstone, David, “Introduction: On Geography and Enlightenment,” in: Livingstone, David N. and Withers, Charles W.J. (eds.), Geography and Enlightenment (London: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 1–31.Google Scholar
Whiters, Charles W.J., and Keighren, Innes M., “Travels into Print: Authoring, Editing and Narratives of Travel and Exploration, c.1815 – c.1857,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers [New Series] 36 (2011), 560–573.Google Scholar