Cartographic Memories of Slavery and Freedom: Examining John Washington's Map and Mapping of Fredericksburg, Virginia

In 1873, former slave John Washington (1838–1918) wrote his memoir, Memorys of the Past. This account includes a remarkable map that locates Washington’s experiences as a slave, his acts of resistance, and the route of his escape from bondage in 1862. Washington’s map is both a work of memory and a rare example of a subaltern cartographic practice. The act of mapping his experiences in Fredericksburg, Virginia, challenges the long-dominant memory of the city as the colonial home of founding fathers and the site of a Confederate victory in the Civil War. At the same time, the formal style of this cartographic representation yields clues about the efforts John Washington and other slaves took after the war to achieve the full promise of emancipation through education. Finally, since Washington’s memoir and map were published in 2007, the National Park Service and local government officials are remapping this remarkable man’s memory as they inscribe narratives of slavery, resistance, and emancipation into Fredericksburg’s memorial landscape.