Spanish Town is visited by Mr. Mason and is the place that Antoinette's mother and Mr. Mason marry. It is also the location of the convent school that Antoinette attends. Antoinette seems proud to live here and becomes accustomed to her new life in Spanish Town. Rhys writes, " Underneath, I will write my name in fire red, Antoinette Mason, née Cosway, Mount Calvary Convent, Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1839" (Rhys 48). In this moment, Spanish Town is reinforced as a place of sanctuary, where Antoinette feels protected from the outside world. However, even inside the school, the dangers and stereotypes of being a “white cockroach” pervade: the dichotomy of her being a white creole with Black experiences is paralleled with the school being a place of both danger and judgment as well as comfort.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Spanish Town was the capital of Jamaica from 1692-1872, named after the earlier possession by Spanish colonists. It was originally called Santiago de la Vega. The editors state, “It is now a commercial and processing centre for produce of the irrigated Liguanea Plain (bananas, sugarcane, annatto, breadfruit, coffee, cacao, and citrus fruit)” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Bibliography: Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea, W. W Norton & Company, 1966.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Spanish Town.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. 21 Nov. 2012. https://www.britannica.com/place/Spanish-Town. Accessed 7 Nov. 2019.