South of the Border
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South of the Border

Women Travelers to Latin America

Evelyn M. Cherpak

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eBook - ePub

South of the Border

Women Travelers to Latin America

Evelyn M. Cherpak

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About This Book

Courageous and intrepid women made their way to Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Some traveled with their husband while several brave souls went alone.Either way, they encountered a culture and peoples that were foreign to them.This encounter inspired them to write about their experiences and impressions in letters home, a personal diary, or a book.These women bring their own unique perspective to our understanding of Latin America that readers will find illuminating.

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Year
2020
ISBN
9781649900784

Sarah Sabin Wilson

Mistress of a Cuban Plantation

SARAH SABIN WILSON (1799–1847) WAS a native of Bristol, Rhode Island, a seafaring town on the shores of Mount Hope Bay, whose privateers played a part in capturing British vessels in the War of 1812. Sarah was an orphan, as her father, John Sabin, captain of a slave ship belonging to wealthy and politically minded James D’Wolf, died in 1808, and her mother, Lucretia Wardwell Sabin, died in 1811. During her youth, John D’Wolf, the brother of James D’Wolf, was appointed her guardian. He took his responsibilities seriously and was a friend and trusted advisor to her for over thirty years. On June 1, 1814, Sarah, at the tender age of fifteen, married twenty-six-year-old Joseph Oliver Wilson (1788–1838), the former captain of the brig Yankee that brought in the largest amount of booty during the War of 1812, in Bristol’s Congregational Church. Wilson, who was from Windsor, Connecticut, was well known and considered a catch, although there is no information on how or when the couple met. Wilson used his profits from his seafaring career to buy a plantation in Camarioca, Matanzas, Cuba, together with his partner, Captain John Smith, and in 1818 the couple and their three-year-old son John moved to Cuba. The Wilsons intended to make a profit from raising sugar and coffee and return to the United States within five years, but they spent the rest of their lives in Cuba.
The Cuba that Sarah Sabin Wilson encountered in 1818 was still a Spanish possession. From 1492, when Columbus landed on Cuban shores, to 1792, the island was a backwater, with no Indians to exploit or gold to discover. In the colonial period, Cuba was the jumping-off point for the invasion of Mexico by Hernando CortĂ©s in 1519 and later served as a stopover for the galleons with their cargo of gold and silver on their way to Spain. By 1762, when the British occupied Havana, trade with the English opened up the country to new products. But the 1790s were transformative for the island, as the Haitian planters immigrated to Cuba after the slave revolt in Haiti destroyed their plantations and crops. They reestablished themselves, and the production of sugar went into full swing, as the growing population of the United States demanded the product. And the need for workers to cut the cane resulted in Cuba becoming an importer of slaves. Over time, about six hundred thousand slaves were brought to the island. Cuba suddenly became Spain’s most prosperous colony and attracted settlers like the Wilsons and other North Americans who hoped to make a fortune cultivating sugar and coffee before returning home.
During her twenty-eight years in Cuba, Sarah wrote faithfully to her former guardian John D’Wolf in Bristol, and it is from these letters that the contours of Sarah’s life in Cuba emerge. She confessed to him that life on a plantation was isolating, and she confided that she missed the company of other women, as her nearest female neighbor was twelve miles away. In a depressed mood, she saw “no prospect of getting clear of a plantation life altogether.” But she wrote to D’Wolf that she wanted him to dispel rumors that she wanted to return home. She averred that she had too much to do to be homesick, and she set about her household duties with energy and determination.
Sarah raised six children over a fifteen-year period—five boys and one girl, Susan, whom she named after D’Wolf’s wife—and she devoted herself to seeing that they were well educated and trained. She wanted the children to learn Spanish, and she herself was determined to learn the language as fast as she could—and she did. Sarah resolved to read books only in Spanish and became proficient in the language. In an attempt to assimilate, Joseph began to call himself JosĂ© and was addressed as Don JosĂ©. As time went on, the Wilsons became, for all intents and purposes, Cuban, although they never forgot their roots, and sent their children to school in the United States.
Besides raising her children, Sarah took on new responsibilities on the plantation. She took care of poultry and hogs; planted a kitchen garden; superintended the house slaves had a hospital built on the grounds, where she nursed the sick; and tutored her own children. She reported to D’Wolf on the status of the coffee and sugar crops that were being raised and marketed, so she was acquainted with the crops produced and the prices that they brought. She took an active interest in the produce that the plantation yielded, as that was their livelihood. Her letters to D’Wolf contained requests for items that they were not able to get in Cuba, including shoes, cloth, bonnets, ribbons, tea, seeds, potatoes, books, and vinegar. In turn, the Wilsons sent D’Wolf molasses, sugar, coffee, and fruit. Sarah also begged the D’Wolfs to visit, as the climate would be agreeable in the winter months.
The Wilsons had to face a number of life-threatening events in Cuba. A cholera epidemic was rampant by 1833. A number of their slaves died of the disease, including their cook. Sarah also came down with cholera but fortunately, recovered. Pirates were another threat that plantation owners had to face. The pirates of the Caribbean preyed on ships carrying cargo of sugar, molasses, and coffee leaving Matanzas harbor. To stem the losses, the United States government sent United States Navy ships to protect commerce. In 1823, Sarah’s fourth of July party had to be postponed because her neighbors refused to leave their homes, as pirates were in the vicinity. Sarah was carrying on a hometown tradition, as Bristol, Rhode Island, held the first Independence Day parade in the country. Finally, slave uprisings threatened the lives and property of the white plantation owners. A slave insurrection occurred in Cuba in 1825, some six leagues from the Wilson plantation. The Wilsons were not harmed, but their neighbors were. Eighteen people were killed, their homes destroyed, and goods stolen. Eventually, the insurrection was put down, but the ringleader was never caught. Joseph Oliver Wilson was a member of the militia that kept order, and he suggested ways to deal with the crisis, including closer supervision of slaves.
Although the Wilsons were in debt to creditors, in 1833 they were able to buy another plantation that they named Esperanza in Saguinillas, some nine miles from San Juan. Sarah and her son John lived there and managed the plantation that “succeeded beyond her expectations.” Besides managing the estate and marketing sugar, she refurbished the house, had homes built for slaves, and extended the cane fields.
By 1834, the Wilsons’ marriage had deteriorated, and they no longer lived together. Joseph was abusive and an alcoholic who resented his wife’s independence and management abilities, remarking that she should exchange her skirts for pantaloons. In April 1835, Sarah petitioned the archbishop of Havana for a divorce, but since divorce was not condoned in Catholic Cuba, she was granted a separation and given custody of the children; henceforth, the couple lived apart. In 1837, when Sarah visited San Juan, Joseph struck her, shot her horse from under her, and chased her into the cane fields, threatening to kill her; however, she managed to escape. One year later, he died and was buried in Camarioca. Sarah never expressed any sorrow about his passing in her letters.
Sarah continued living at Esperanza until she departed for Spain in 1846 with her daughter Susan FortĂșn, who had married a Spanish officer stationed in Cuba. She became ill in Seville, where she died on January 8, 1847, and was buried in San Sebastian Cemetery there. Her son Charles married a Cuban woman and her other children most likely remained in Cuba, where they continued to work the estates that she so carefully protected to ensure their patrimony.
The following letters written to John D’Wolf in Bristol, Rhode Island, beginning in 1818 and continuing in the 1820s and 1830s, give a picture of her life in Cuba and the events that impacted both her and her family: a slave insurrection, a cholera epidemic, pirates, marital problems, and the difficulties of adjusting to life in a foreign country and a different culture while trying to maintain contact with her home country and friends there. Sarah’s letters are honest and, although her first impressions of Cuba were unfavorable, she adjusted to living there and went on to manage two plantations, market crops, settle her husband’s debts, execute contracts, and leave an estate for her children. She never returned to live in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Sarah Sabin Wilson’s letters published here are courtesy of the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society in Bristol, Rhode Island.
p6-1
PLAZA LA LIBERTAD, MATANZAS, CUBA, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
JULY 11, 1818, CAMARIOCA, ST. JUAN PLANTATION

HON J D’WOLF
Dear Sir,
Proud to obey your request. I improve the first opportunity to write you of our situation, and to send my respects to yourself and Lady. Doubtless you have received Oliver’s letter from Matanzas dated June 15, informing you of our voyage, health, etc.
On the 17th we left the detestable town of Matanzas in a launch at dark and arrived on the shore of Camarioca at sunrise, where the Mosquitoes, Sandflies and Landcrabs were ready to receive us. Having to send for horses to carry us five miles further, we lay down on the sand with our new companions to rest, the boat being so loaded we had not room to lie our heads.
We arrived at the St. Juans by noon, I found as I expected a pleasant country, and to me a great many new and interesting objects. I think I shall like to stay five years, but I am sure I will stay no longer if God preserves my life to return to America.
I am sorry to inform you of the ill state of our little boy who has had to undergo a very severed seasoning, but I flatter myself he is at present mending, but he has grown very poor and weak, his sickness was a dysentery; that has been great trouble for me, being unacquainted with my few neighbors, distant from friends, inexperienced in sickness and fatigued by watch, almost made me curse my fortune, but I hope I shall not again have so severe a trial of my fortitude and patience (which by the bye) you know I never possessed a very large stock.
We have plenty of fruit so bad I cannot eat it and little good, but I hope next year to have more, and not be dependent either, for anything that land will produce. The estate has been very much neglected and abused several years, but is now rapidly improving. We find the stream or river at the foot of a very steep hill in front of our house very convenient, and pleasant, too, for bathing and it supplies us with plenty of nice fish and eels. I like our situation better than any I have seen. Our thatched hut is very inferior but we are expecting Carpenter to repair and make tight from the rain, when we shall be comfortable & look at least as well as our neighbor.
I depend much on seeing you or your son next winter, pray encourage him to come. I am sure he would spend the winter more pleasant here than at home. Oliver is very anxious to see him. It is very healthy in the country, but the small pox rages yet in Matanzas. We had a letter from Mr. Fales dated June 24th stating their baby was sick, the expected with that disorder & I am anxious to hear the result.
I find no time to be homesick, a woman was much needed to regulate the house and we have always had negros sick until now. We have buried three children but they had long been weakly.
I wish Mrs. D’Wolf would as near as she can send me a receipt for making butter and cheese, and if without trouble you could procure some garden seeds for our second planting in September it would much oblige us, as we are troubled to find any. When we begin to make sugar I shall send your wife some sweetmeats having plenty of limes.
Please present my love to your good Lady, and family, and Yourself accept the highest respect and Gratitude of
S.S.Wilson
P.S. Dear Sir, if you see my Grandfather be kind enough to show him this and he will instruct Mr. Church to direct his letters to the care of Zacharia Atkins, esq., Matanzas.
CAMARIOCA, ST. JUANS PLANTATION, FEBRUARY 10, 1819

CAPT. JOHN D’WOLF
Dear Sir,
By Capt. Smith I acknowledge the receipt of your letter to Oliver, and also of the many presents you by Capt. Batt sent us and we are inexpressibly grateful for the kind recollection manifested in the trouble you must have taken to select and forward articles, every one of which was great raraties for us. We received safely every article and had not the apples been detained in Matanzas a fortnight I think would have reached us sound, and as it was, we had our feast of them. The Potatoes all nice and sound; the butter I think as nice as when first put up, and I must tell you is all we have had since we came from Bristol except a keg last summer that we could not eat and which we never unheaded but drew like oil. We milk but one cow and that is little for our family consisting of ten workmen five in our house & we must allow little negros also some. We shall have more by and by but we must take care of the most needful first.
I feared by an intimation in your letter to Oliver by Capt. Munroe that you thought me discontented and I must advise you of the contrary; but tell you why I content myself, and on what grounds I am dissatisfied. First, Dear Sir, you know the only thing that induced me to leave a country so beautiful as the U.S. (particularly so on account of the protection ever{y} man enjoys in just laws) and come to one as unsettled as this was. I judged it would in the end prove advantageous to my family. This same idea still governs me in wishing to stay a few years and in fact I am so interested I would not (if left to me) on any account leave this place while prospects are so fair of making us able to live where we please as the expiration of the proposed time, but think not that interest shall keep me here longer. Why I am dissatisfied. First, I dislike the Spaniards, and have no female society (except Mrs. Smith) nearer than twelve miles, in case of sickness. This I have found very unhappy, and no Physician in any case. I will recite to you the adventures lately passed and judge yourself if any woman of ever so firm resolution would not fear to have her friends exposed to like accidents although they are seldom.
Last week an Irishman (named Barry) who lives three miles from us got a little tipsy and attempted to kill his negros in the night because he said they did not work enough; he severely wounded by dull sword six of them before assistance reached the poor wretches. The Sunday eve following a man by the name of Doogen (also Irish) an honest obliging neighbor (who frequently dined and supped with us) was returning from the next Plantation to his o...

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