![]() Still, being born into an upper-crest family, Simón Bolívar had the luxury of travel. His Education Of The Enlightenmentīolívar’s family, although one of the wealthiest in Venezuela, was subject to class-based discrimination as a result of being “Creole” - a term used to describe those of white Spanish descent who were born in the colonies.īy the late 1770s, Spain’s Bourbon regime had enacted several anti-Creole laws, robbing the Bolívar family of certain privileges only afforded to Spaniards born in Europe. South America was ripe for rebellion against Spanish imperialism. Underneath all of that racial tension, a yearning for freedom began to simmer. By the time Bolívar reached his teens, half of Venezuela’s population was descended from slaves. There was growing racial tension in the South American colonies, since the color of one’s skin was deeply tied to one’s civil rights and social class. Twenty-six thousand more black slaves were brought to Caracas from Africa, and the city’s mixed-race population was growing as a result of the inevitable intermingling of white Spanish colonizers, black slaves, and native peoples.īiographer Marie Arana on Simón Bolívar’s legacy. He ignored his studies and spent much of his time roaming around Caracas with other children his age.Īt the time, Caracas was on the cusp of a serious upheaval. Without adult supervision, the rambunctious Bolívar had the freedom to do as he pleased. His grandfather’s will appointed Bolívar’s uncle Carlos as the boy’s new guardian, but Carlos was lazy and ill-tempered, unfit to raise children or command such a mountain of wealth. Their family’s estate was estimated to be worth millions in today’s dollars Soon after his mother died, Simón Bolívar’s grandfather passed away, too, leaving Bolívar and his older brother, Juan Vicente, to inherit the enormous fortune of one of Venezuela’s most prominent families. Wikimedia Commons When he was young, Simón Bolívar was a spoiled boy with little regard for authority. Hipólita was doting and patient with the mischievous Bolívar, and Bolívar unabashedly referred to her as the woman “whose milk sustained my life” and “the only father I have ever known.” Because of this, Bolívar was mostly cared for by his grandfather, aunts and uncles, and the family’s longtime slave, Hipólita. His father died of tuberculosis when he was three, and his mother died from the same disease about six years later. Little Simón Bolívar was petulant and spoiled - though he suffered great tragedy. The Bolívar family fields were labored over by the Native American and African slaves that they owned. His father, Colonel Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte, and his mother, Doña María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco, inherited vast swaths of land, money, and resources. His family came from a long line of Spanish aristocrats and businessmen on both sides. Born on July 24, 1783, he was the youngest of four children and was named after the first Bolívar ancestor who migrated to the Spanish colonies some two centuries before his birth. Picryl Born into a wealthy Creole family, Simón Bolívar rose as a prominent leader of the revolution.īefore he became the fierce liberator of South America, Simón Bolívar lived a carefree life as the son of a wealthy family in Caracas, Venezuela.
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