Weapons Used by the Gold Coast Negros

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.

Image Title

Weapons Used by the Gold Coast Negros

RegID

SI-OB-822

Date

1745-1747

Title

Weapons Used by the Gold Coast Negros

Source

"Plate LXX" in Thomas Astley (ed.), A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 2 (London: Thomas Astley, 1745-1747), facing p. 693.

Language

English

Item sets

Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture

Spatial Coverage

Africa--Voltaic

Reproduced In

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).

Researchers

Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May

Last Updated

9-Aug-10; 21-Aug-19

Identifier

Astley017