The History of a Periphery: Spanish Colonial Cartography from Colombia’s Pacific Lowlands, 1710-1810

FAIN: FEL-267334-20

Juliet Benham Wiersema
University of Texas, San Antonio (San Antonio, TX 78249-1644)

Research and writing leading to a book on unpublished maps depicting the economic life of free and enslaved Africans in Nueva Granada (modern-day Colombia) during the 18th century.

This book-length project tells a new story about frontier regions, nature, and the limits of empire. It illuminates the pivotal role that African and indigenous inhabitants played in the economy of a gold mining region in the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada during the last century of Spanish colonial rule. Drawing from unpublished manuscript maps and archival documents, this project reconstructs little-studied communities that existed beyond the margins of the colonial system and reveals an alternate view of the Spanish empire, one with distinct protagonists and different priorities than previously understood. This project highlights how rivers—ubiquitous in this region—acted as a channel for contraband, a lifeline to miners, and a pathway to freedom for African slaves.