Our exclusive map of Barbados Print is a reproduction of A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados, 1657, by Richard Ligon (1585-1662). From the collection of New-York Historical, and produced to accompany the exhibition The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning & Reclaiming.
Tituba, the slave woman at the center of the notorious Salem witch trials was likely transported from South America to Barbados, forcefully dispelling the commonly-held belief that Tituba was African. The uniquely multicultural nature of life on a seventeenth-century Barbadan sugar plantation—defined by a mixture of English, American Indian, and African ways and folklore—indelibly shaped the young Tituba's world and the mental images she brought with her to Massachusetts.
While not geographically accurate, this map of Barbados demonstrates the density of
sugar plantations on the island. Illustrations of both enslaved African and Indigenous people, as well as militant settlers, livestock, and ships dot its topography.
The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming (October 7, 2022 - January 22, 2023) explores how, even after 300 years, Salem’s witch trials remain a defining example of intolerance and injustice in American history. The extraordinary events of 1692-3 led to the deaths of 25 innocent people, the vast majority of whom were women. The exhibition includes tangible fragments from the past that illuminate the real lives of Salem’s residents: those accused of witchcraft, their accusers, and those who defended them against legal charges, risking their own lives and reputations in the process.
