Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre is reminiscent of the author’s own experiences. Many of the characters, locations, and events of the bildungsroman mirror Brontë’s life and the lives of her sisters. Protagonist Jane Eyre spends her early years attending the Lowood Institution, a charitable school dedicated to the religious and oppressive upbringing of young girls. This institution, though fictional, is based off of the Cowan Bridge School.

Though construction began in 1734, the Cinnamon Hill great house, located in Jamaica's St. James Parish, wasn't completed until half a century later in 1784. Located on the hill behind the Cinnamon Hill sugar works, the house was built to stand against the dual threats of insurrection and hurricanes, its structure featuring an ocean-facing concrete butress called a "cutwind" that not only protected the house against the intense winds of the stormy season but included holes through which muskets could be shot.