The Jamaica Letter or “Carta de Jamaica”, written by Simon Bolivar on September 1815 and addressed to English merchant Henry Cullen served to justify Latin American Independence and ask for English help supporting the cause.
After having lost a number of military and political disputes with the government of Cartagena, Bolivar flees Colombia for Jamaica hoping to receive English backed support in his revolutionary endeavor. Seeing himself in need of financing, Bolivar seeks backers; one of them being Henry Cullen.
Bolivar talks about a unified independent America, by the people, for the people. He talks about a complete rupture with Spanish colonialism, ideas, and institutions, proposing the redistribution of power to the ‘criollos’. Bolivar proposes taking the land from the Spanish and giving it to those who participate in, and join the revolutionary cause.
The letter is filled with progressive thought and liberal ideas.
Going deeper into what this letter was meant for, we have to take into account who it was addressed to. Henry Cullen.
Henry Cullen was an English merchant in colonial Jamaica. He was well connected, had money, and knew people in with influence. Simon Bolivar thought that by writing to Cullen, he could tap into the British bank accounts to fuel his revolution and find allies to create his unified american dream. The way Bolivar writes to Cullen, hints at further motives in his writing of the letter. After all, Bolivar knew that Great Britain was the most powerful liberal nation at the time.
The letter is filled with rhetorical tools to capture the interest and gain the readers admiration. These are directly aimed at gaining english support for his cause, which, at the time is not given. Bolivar fled Jamaica after a failed assassination attempt and ended up in Haiti where he obtained his much needed financial support. He then returned to continental america where he consolidated the campaign for an independent Nueva Granada with the victory of the Battle of Boyacá in 1819.
If anyone is still wondering what happened to the British in this story, they offered their support later but were turned down after Bolivar was funded by Haitian money.