This engraving depicts weapons including swords, shields, bows and arrows, spears, knives, daggers and axes. Some of these items were also used in agriculture. The reference to Gold Coast suggests the Voltaic region. Thomas Astley (d. 1759) was a British bookseller and publisher who never went to Africa. His imagined localities and illustrations of Africa were informed by a library of travel books at his disposal.
Weapons Used by the Gold Coast Negros
SI-OB-822
1745-1747
Weapons Used by the Gold Coast Negros
"Plate LXX" in Thomas Astley (ed.), A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 2 (London: Thomas Astley, 1745-1747), facing p. 693.
English
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Africa--Voltaic
Derived from a larger engraving based on the late seventeenth century voyages of Jean Barbot and published in Awnsham Churchill and John Churchill, Collection of Voyages, (London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, 1732).
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
9-Aug-10; 21-Aug-19
Astley017