Frederick Douglass

Nova Rico is a mapmaking company outside of Florence, Italy. They produce over one million custom designed globes each year.

“‘The problems of cartography are the same that exist in diplomatic relations,’ said Stefano Strata, co-director of Nova Rico, which has been producing custom globes for 50 years in Impruneta, near Florence. For mapmakers like Nova Rico, disputes over geography are commonplace. For a Turkish customer, Cyprus is shown split in two, a division that Greek Cypriots do not recognize. In one globe, Chile gets parts of Antarctica that on another globe go to Argentina. And in much of the Arab world, Israel is nonexistent…

When working on a commission, Strata and his business partner, Riccardo Donati, get precise instructions, sometimes at governmental level. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein, then the president of Iraq, commissioned Nova Rico to draft a globe with all Arab countries colored orange and the rest of the world yellow. Iraqi military advisers came to Impruneta to monitor production. ‘It was clearly a political globe,’ Strata said.” (1)

When Frederick Bailey escaped the rigors of slavery from a Maryland plantation, he did not have a globe, atlas, map, route numbers, or any of the navigational tools that we take for granted in today’s world. He used his knowledge of the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore, along with the rudiments of astronomy.

“Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the deep stillness of a summer’s Sabbath, stood all alone upon the lofty banks of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour out my soul’s complaint, in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the moving multitude of ships:–

You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting wing!

Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! Try it? Yes! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. The steamboats steered in a northeast course from North Point. I will do the same; and when I get to the head of the bay, I will turn my canoe adrift, and walk straight through Delaware into Pennsylvania. When I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass; I can travel without being disturbed.

The plan we finally concluded upon was, to get a large canoe belonging to Mr. Hamilton, and upon the Saturday night previous to Easter holidays, paddle directly up the Chesapeake Bay. On our arrival at the head of the bay, a distance of seventy or eighty miles from where we lived, it was our purpose to turn our canoe adrift, and follow the guidance of the North Star till we got beyond the limits of Maryland. Our reason for taking the water route was, that we were less liable to be suspected as runaways; we hoped to be regarded as fishermen; whereas, if we should take the land route, we should be subjected to interruptions of almost every kind. Any one having a white face, and being so disposed, could stop us, and subject us to examination.”

His first attempt in 1835 resulted in failure; actually, he was betrayed by one of his friends before the escape could be attempted. However, the resolute will of Frederick would not remain deterred. Three years later, he tried again, and was successful. He decided not to describe the event in great detail because it might compromise the safety of future attempts.

“On the third day of September, 1838, I left my chains, and succeeded in reaching New York without the slightest interruption of any kind. How I did so,–what means I adopted,–what direction I travelled, and by what mode of conveyance,–I must leave unexplained, for the reasons before mentioned.”

Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Chapters X and XI.

Reference

(1) “In mapmaking, disputes over geography,” International Herald Tribune, 02 August 2007.