{"id":640,"date":"2012-10-18T15:17:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T20:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/modernlatinamerica\/?page_id=640"},"modified":"2012-10-18T15:17:06","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T20:17:06","slug":"a-journey-through-revolutionary-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/chapters\/chapter-10-chile\/travels-in-chile\/a-journey-through-revolutionary-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"“A Voyage from the United States to South America,” Thomas Bennett (1821)"},"content":{"rendered":"

About the author:
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/span>Thomas Bennet traveled to Latin America aboard a Nantucket whaling ship in the years 1821, 1822, and 1823.\u00a0 He stopped in Peru, Chile, and Brazil where he caught the last throes of the revolutionary struggle in the first two countries and a unique form of imperial home-rule in the last.\u00a0 He wrote the travelogue for his father describing events and resources, with \u201ca variety of original anecdotes.\u201d\u00a0 The travelogue became so popular among his friends back home that it was eventually published.<\/p>\n

\"Richard<\/a>

Richard Henry Bonnycastle. (A. Small: 1819 )\u201cSpanish America; or, A descriptive, historical, and geographical account of the dominions of Spain in the Western hemisphere, continental & insular\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Journey Through Revolutionary Latin America:\u00a0Thomas Bennet\u2019s Travels in Peru, Chile, and Brazil 1821-1823<\/strong><\/h1>\n

By Emily Hurt<\/p>\n

In 1821, when the whaling ship that Thomas Bennet had boarded in Philadelphia landed in Latin America, he found himself traveling through countries at the height of revolutionary fervor, \u00a0just as the last remnants of the royalist army were rapidly losing ground in Chile and Peru. Thomas Bennet\u2019s arrival at such a crucial time in Latin America provoked reactions that echo the United States\u2019 official stance on Latin America.\u00a0 Though his travelogue was initially meant for his father to read, its popularity among the people of Nantucket and subsequent publication in several editions reveal a wide interest among Americans in the revolutionary movements in Latin America.\u00a0 Interestingly, Bennet does not follow the trend of a number of travelogues and skips over in-depth descriptions of cultural practices, choosing instead to focus on military, political, religious, and economic matters.\u00a0 Within his observations Thomas Bennet, perhaps unknowingly, reflects the tension between the respect of mutual values of independence and the birth of an insidious, quasi-colonial relationship between North and South America.<\/p>\n

In Chile, his description of the 500 Spaniards who remain in rebel territory in Coquimbo highlight his his distrust of Europeans. He writes,<\/p>\n

They [the Spaniards] plainly showed, by their morose looks and slovenly appearance, that the reign of their beloved Ferdinand had ceased to exist here\u2014that the road to fortune was no longer by the oppression of Chileans\u2026\u201d (55).<\/p>\n

Here he indicates that the traditional role of the Europeans was to oppress the natives and, by extension, that they had no role in a new, independent nation.\u00a0 In Peru he similarly describes the royalist army as a \u201cdark, savage looking set of men\u2026their glowering and suspicious looks, and their unfriendly behavior\u2026\u201d (61).\u00a0 He continues by describing their clothes and weaponry, which, he claims, are those of the British red coats.\u00a0 By portraying royalists as untrustworthy he demeans the crown, and, by equating them to British soldiers, he consciously links the Latin American struggle for independence to that of the United States in 1776.<\/p>\n

Bennet continually invokes the North American example to expound upon the positive qualities of revolutionary movements and patriotism, to support the movement for independence, and to paint the monarchy as despotic and tyrannical. In both Chile and Peru, where the revolutionary struggle occurs around him in real time, he outlines what he sees as a stark dichotomy between independence and colonial rule.\u00a0 In the Chilean region of Talcuahano, for example, he writes that the ongoing battles were,<\/p>\n

\u2026conducted on the one part to uphold an imbecile king and slavish despotism, and on the other to give a whole people freedom and to conquer those rights and privileges to which they, in common with all the universe are entitled\u201d (47).<\/p>\n

This language dismisses colonial rule as both antiquated and tyrannical, and compares it to the relationship between a slave and master.\u00a0 By arguing that European rule restricts natural rights and by personally attacking the king, Bennet invokes the language of the American Revolution, and links the Chilean ideals of nationhood to those of the United States.<\/p>\n

This promotion of Chilean ideals had its economic incentives. His eye for the country\u2019s natural resources indicates a clear interest in developing a paternalistic relationship between the United States and newly independent Latin American nations.\u00a0 He spends a great deal of time documenting the abundant natural resources of each town he encounters, as well as comparing the prices of commonplace goods to what might be found in his native New England. He clearly demonstrates an interest in tapping into the Latin American market. In Chile, he is so complimentary of the mild flora and fauna that it would appear that the rich cache of resources is simply lying around on the ground for the taking by an intrepid exporter (25-26).\u00a0 His continuous observations about the role of foreigners and the ease of trade in each country indicate his mercantile motivations.<\/p>\n

In December of 1823, when Thomas Bennet had been home in Nantucket for nearly six months, President James Monroe gave the State of the Union address, which contained what would come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine.\u00a0 The Doctrine is an uncanny political mimicry of the textually evident views and goals of Thomas Bennet.\u00a0 While the United States did not join the revolutionary struggle of its southern neighbors, it threw support behind the newly liberated states and proclaimed that European powers no longer had the right to colonize the Americas.\u00a0 While this proclamation received the acclaim of revolutionary forces, it also opened a surreptitious door for expanding the United States\u2019 sphere of influence over Latin America.\u00a0 This tension between anti-European revolutionary fervor and semi-colonial attraction characterizes both the travelogue of Thomas Bennet (originally intended for his family) and a nationwide declaration of intent.\u00a0 Perhaps this correlation indicates a similarity in sentiment, combining sympathy and attraction, which united the American public\u2019s view of Latin America.<\/p>\n

*************<\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/span><\/p>\n

Bennet, Thomas H. A voyage from the United States to South America, performed during<\/em>
\n the years 1821, 1822, & 1823<\/em>. Embracing a description of the city of Rio
\nJaneiro, in Brazil, of every port of importance in Chili; of several in Lower Peru;
\nand of an eighteen months cruise in a Nantucket whaleship. The whole
\ninterspersed with a variety of original anecdotes. Newburyport, Massachusetts,
\nHerald Press, 1823. Published 1823 by Printed at the Herald Press in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About the author: Thomas Bennet traveled to Latin America aboard a Nantucket whaling ship in the years 1821, 1822, and 1823.\u00a0 He stopped in Peru, Chile, and Brazil where he caught the last throes of the revolutionary struggle in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"parent":638,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-640","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/640\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}