Mapping Freedom

There are many interesting points made by Edward L. Ayers in his article Mapping Freedom.  He outlines the benefits of the use of maps and graphics in the writing of history. He argues that history takes place in space whether it is in a historical building or on a battlefield, therefore there should be a justification for using maps and graphics as a means of presenting the relationship between space and time.

Ayers uses the example of the movements of African American populations during and after the American Civil War and spatially represents the marriages of African Americans in Virginia during the Civil War through the use of maps. His animated map showing population movements of African American between 1810 and 1970 vividly illustrate the increased migration in the post emancipation period. As they say a picture paints a thousand words and I would agree that this can also be applied to writing history. The use of graphs or maps can have the ability to illuminate an article which may be difficult to comprehend. I found this in reading a book on the Battle of Kursk which used 3D maps recreating the terrain and movements of the Russian and German armies, illustrating the events in a manner which written accounts could not.

In an Irish context the use of maps can be useful in the illustration of events such as the plantations. The map below from irelandstory.com depicts the change in land ownership in Ireland during the Cromwellian Plantation and serves as an example of the enacting of history in space.

 Ayers uses the analogy of weather maps to justify the use of maps for history. He describes how we use weather maps to retrospectively depict and explain the complex processes occurring in a weather system. Similarly ‘we can comprehend the historical weather, tracing where the currents led, how the storms brewed, and how the unpredictable somehow came to pass.’

The visual representation of history as a time landscape with important events represented by mountains and uneventful times by flat valleys was an interesting analogy. Additionally these significant historical events cannot be depicted as occurring in a straight line from start to finish. For example it would be inaccurate to present the events of Easter 1916 to the coming to power of Cumann na nGaedheal as a simple capitulation of British control in Ireland. All factors need to be considered. As Ayers says ‘history never travels as the bird flies; history walks across a varied and landscape of time.’



Ethnic Divisions in Bosnia in 1991



One of the courses I did in second year history in which I found maps to be an essential aid was the Balkans; World War I to Kosovo. I was studying the extremely complicated break-up of the Yugoslav Federation. This conflict’s division went well beyond national borders but was based on vicious ethnic divisions. The development of the war in certain ethnic areas of different countries was difficult to form a clear picture of. This was increasingly relevant in the bitterly divided Bosnia.  The use of maps depicting the divisions was essential in studying the conflict.

Ayers article had many interesting points and there is no doubting the benefits of the use of maps and graphics in the representation of history. Their use can make historical events and trends far more illuminating to readers of history.