View source for Norman's chart of the lower Mississippi River

{{short description|1858 U.S. map}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Norman's chart of the lower Mississippi River, LOC 78692178.jpg|thumb|''Norman's chart of the lower Mississippi River'' ([[Library of Congress Digital]])]]
[[File:Manuscript Map Showing Plantations Leased and Plantations Not Leased in Wilkenson, Adams, Clairbon and Jefferson Counties, Mississippi and Concordia and Tensas Parishes, Louisiana NAID 26465535.jpg|thumb|After the American Civil War, the U.S. government produced this similar "Manuscript Map Showing Plantations Leased and Plantations Not Leased in Wilkinson, Adams, Clairborne and Jefferson Counties, Mississippi and Concordia and Tensas Parishes, Louisiana" (NAID 26465535)]]
'''''Norman's chart of the lower Mississippi River''''' is a historically significant map produced in 1858 of landmarks, roads, ferry crossings, and plantations along the course of the [[Mississippi River]] from Natchez to New Orleans.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Norman's Chart of the Lower Mississippi River |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/12922hpr-6cfaf0cd041f7d4/ |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Norman's Chart of the Lower Mississippi River |url=https://64parishes.org/entry-image/normans-chart-of-the-lower-mississippi-river |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=64 Parishes |language=en}}</ref> Cotton and sugar plantations are color-coded with distinct colors.<ref name=":0" /> The lithographic map is based on cartography by [[Marie Adrien Persac]].<ref name=":1" /> The map was printed by longtime New Orleans bookseller [[Benjamin Moore Norman]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Norman's chart of the lower Mississippi River |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4042m.ct000765/ |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>
As one historian wrote, "At the time Norman's chart was published, the sugar coast stood prominently at the center of political power in Louisiana. Persac's inclusion of planters' names allows the viewer to navigate his chart as a map of concentrated power."<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=VanHuss |editor-first=Laura Kilcer |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4kEEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22norman%27s+chart+of+the+lower+mississippi+river%22&pg=PT87 |title=Charting the Plantation Landscape from Natchez to New Orleans |date=2021 |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-7572-9 |language=en |chapter=Severed Heads to Statehouse: The Political Landscape of the Sugar Coast |first= Charles D. III |last=Chamberlain}}</ref> Persac sailed the river in a skiff to collect information for the map, stopping frequently to inquire about names of plantations and plantation owners.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Tomich |first1=Dale W. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8_9DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22norman%27s+chart+of+the+lower+mississippi+river%22&pg=PA23 |title=Reconstructing the Landscapes of Slavery: A Visual History of the Plantation in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World |last2=Monzote |first2=Reinaldo Funes |last3=Fornias |first3=Carlos Venegas |last4=Marquese |first4=Rafael de Bivar |date=2021 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-6313-5 |pages=23 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 1. The Lower Mississippi Valley Cotton Frontier}}</ref> According to ''Reconstructing the Landscapes of Slavery'' (2021), "It has the effect of a promenade along the river, displaying the bounty of nature transformed into capitalist wealth. This corridor was the nation's leading producer of cotton and sugar and had the densest slave population in the country. It was reputed to be home to more millionaires than anywhere else in the United States."<ref name=":2" />
== See also ==
* ''[[Lloyd's Steamboat Directory]]''
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Rolston, Joyce Nelson, and Stanton, Anne G. ''Historical Maps of Louisiana: An Annotated Bibliography''. United States, Geoscience Publications, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, 1999.
== External links ==
* {{Cite web |title=East & West Banks of the Mississippi |url=https://greatriverroadmuseum.org/exhibits/east-and-west-banks-of-the-mississippi/ |website=The Great River Road Museum |language=en-US}}
[[Category:Maps of the United States]]
[[Category:Works about American slavery]]
[[Category:Works about the Mississippi River]]
[[Category:Geography of Mississippi]]
[[Category:Geography of Louisiana]]
[[Category:19th-century maps and globes]]