118 of 120 towns are placed on the map. Each pin marks a town's location; for settlements that no longer exist, the pin marks where the town stood. Tap a pin for the town and its song. Every town, mapped or not, is in the full list.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Locations are town-level approximations for a historical archive, not surveyed boundaries.
The story does not stop at the border. Wherever colonialism carried Black people (the Caribbean, the Virgin Islands, the Americas, and the ports of Europe), they did what they did here: fought for ground and built towns of their own. And in Africa itself, communities broke colonial control and governed themselves: freed people's towns that became capitals, maroon towns and refuges, and a town where a liberation republic was declared. Maroon republics, quilombos, palenques, Garifuna towns, and free Black settlements, each pinned where it stood or still stands. One of these towns already has its song: Nanny Town, Jamaica.
53 places on this map. Entries the record supports only as a district or a territory are labeled as such: the record stays honest. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.