John Carter Brown to receive Simon Bolivar collection.

Maury Bromsen, a Boston-based book collector, will give his collection of writings and iconographic materials related to Simon Bolivar to John Carter Library at Brown University of Providence R.I.

Bromsen, a bibliographer, historian and bookdealer as well as a collector, has specialized in the colonial Latin America field for more than 50 years.

Simon Bolivar

The following is an excerpt from" Simon Bolivar and the Revolutions for Independence in the Americas"

Like George Washington, Simon Bolivar ( 1.783-1.830 ) was a member of the slave owning colonial aristocracy of his country. He came from a rich and powerful family with investments in agriculture, ranching and sugar mills. Along with many other talented Creoles ( That is American-born colonist ) throughout the western hemisphere, he resented the ceilings and limitations that European government from overseas placed on advancement by those who were not themselves European.

Profoundly influenced by ideas of the French Enlightenment, Bolivar was a rare instance of the intellectual who was also a man of action. He was a firm believer in legal equality for all men, regardless of class or color. He was opposed to slavery and freed his own slaves in 1.821. He saw that the freedom of America from Spanish control required the complete conquest of the royalist, lest a base remain on the continent from which a counter revolution could be launched.

Without question Bolivar was the greatest figure in the revolutions for independence in Spanish America, both in eloquence and military leadership, he died in disillusionment with the results of his heroic efforts. Every where in America he saw chaos and political instability. Few of his plans for social, economic and political reforms were realized.

Only a month before he died he wrote to a friend. " America is ungovernable. Those who served the revolution plow the sea."See also (1)

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