Reimagining The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, and A Woman of Color—A Tale texts through an Interactive Map Tool.
The History of Mary Prince and A Woman of Colour are black Atlantic texts, representing the conventional and unconventional experiences of women of color. They are different in how A Woman of Colour is about a free black heiress while the latter concerns an enslaved West Indian woman who relates the abuse and physical toil of her enslavement. However, both texts demonstrate movement as both texts record travel by force or by choice. From The History of Mary Prince, the reader sees Prince's tale begins in Brackish Point, Bermuda; her Bermudian slave owners sell her to other slave owners in Spanish Point, Bermuda; slave owners sell her off to Turks Island, where she works in the salt ponds. Prince eventually reaches London, where she attempts to gain her freedom. A Woman of Colour—A Tale is similar to the previous text in which the protagonist travels from Jamaica to London.
To show the connection between place and cultural norms, I propose to curate an interactive map as an open-access resource to complement the readings. I will use the Google mapping tool in which the technology allows the user to scan specific placements within the map as they read the text.
- There will be an index of entries that chronologically specify moments in the texts.
- For key moments, I will analyze the meaning of the text through the geographical standpoints of the Caribbean and Europe.
- I want to explore the relationships between these two different environments that appear to connect through colonialism.
- For instance, the user will be able to trace Olivia’s voyage to London; the user would see pinpoints in the Caribbean ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean. This moment is significant as Olivia is a free woman of colour on a ship traveling by free-will; this in contrast to Prince, who travels with her slave owners by force.
- There will be two different maps and indexes for each text; the different maps will be easily visible.