Author Bio: Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas in July of 1783. He died at the age of 47 in December of 1830. Simon Bolivar was the son of a Venezuelan nobleman and grew up around great wealth. His family was a creole family, meaning that his parents were from Spain but he was born in Latin America. He was known as “El Libertador” or “The Liberator” because of the revolution that he led in Latin America. The modern day country of Bolivia was named after him.
Date/Context: This text written by Simon Bolivar was written in 1815. Bolivar wrote this letter during the “low point” of the struggles against Spain in the war for independence. Bolivar wrote this while he was spending his time in Jamaica because he was exiled. He wrote this letter to send to an “English gentleman” who was most likely the leader of Jamaica at the time to discuss his views about the Spanish and his native land.
Summary: The text starts off by giving some background information about Simon Bolivar. He was the son of a Venezuelan nobleman and grew up in a wealthy family. After his parents died, he was sent to Spain to continue his education and to find a spouse. He eventually, returned to Venezuela in 1807 when Napoleon's conquest weakened Spain and allowed Bolivar to start his independence movement. Bolivar later talks about how foreseeing the future of “America” is a very difficult task, comparing it to when mankind was in it’s “infancy”. He states that no form of government is perfect, and they need to choose the one that will be most effective. Bolivar is telling his audience that the “Americans” must fight against the Europeans, even though they essentially come from there. Later in the text, Bolivar talks about how it is more difficult to release a nation from “servitude”, than it is to enslave a population of free people. Essentially he means that it is going to be very difficult to liberate America smoothly. Towards the end of the text, he says that it would be great for America to be unified as one, but there are so many differences including climate, geography, interests, and many more differences that would cause too many issues in the long run. To conclude, the Jamaican Letter was written to discuss the type of America that Simon Bolivar see’s in the future, and to summarize the fight that was occurring against the Europeans.
Key Quotation: “Americans today, and perhaps to a greater extent than ever before, who live within the Spanish system occupy a position in society no better than that of serfs destined for labor, or at best they have no more status than that of mere consumers.”
I felt that your summary was very informative and gave an insightful, and complete understanding of what the Jamaican Letter was all about. There were many details of your summary that helped strengthen your argument, however there were minor details that could improve it even more. One thing that was very vital in solidifying your argument was your key quotation, which I felt gave the reader the best understanding of text without reading it. I also felt that you gave the reader sufficient amount of detail of who Simon Bolivar was and what his goal was. Another thing I liked is that you gave examples about why it would be hard for America to be unified as one. On the other hand, I thought that you should have elaborated more what you said about how the Americans must fight against the Europeans. I felt that you could have given specific examples about how liberating America was not as smoothly as Bolivar wanted it to be. Overall, I felt that your summary was very strong and did not have many flaws that weakened your argument.
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