The ‘ Buccaneers’. The 19th-century scorn for the Nouveau Riche
Jo Pires-O`Brien
In the United States as in many other parts of the world, the period referred to as the Guilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth from the 1870s to about 1900, when many fortunes were made in the new emerging industries such as petrol, electricity and railroad. The traditional American high society, especially that of New York and New England, sneered at the nouveau riche, referring to them as ‘buccaneers’, a term used to describe the class of free sailors who were common in the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. The new trend of calling the nouveau riche ‘buccaneers’ not just extended the meaning of ‘buccaneers’ to that of ‘adventurers’, but also created a term to denote the name of a new social class that was the opposite of the traditional upper class, or old money. Many American nouveau riche became philanthropists, such as the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919). And as everyone knows, philanthropy is associated with magnanimity. Some American nouveau riche sought to marry their daughters to the European aristocracy, perhaps as a strategy to become accepted into high society, such as the American businessman and railway tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt I (1849 –1920) and his wife Alva Erskine Smith (1853 – 1933), who arranged the marriage of their eldest daughter Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964) to the 9th Duke of Marlborough, the most prominent member of the British aristocracy.
Consuelo Vanderbilt was the most famous buccaneer’s daughter. I first learned her story when I visited Blenheim palace in 1990. Perhaps the reason why I kept it on my mind is that our guide mentioned that she was partly Brazilian. When I recently took the time to read more about Consuelo Vanderbilt, I did not find any evidence that she was partly Brazilian, although there was another Consuelo who was a Cuban-American.
Consuelo Yznaga (1853-1909), who married George, Viscount Mandeville, in 1876, was a Cuban-American. She became the Duchess of Manchester in 1890 when her husband succeeded to the dukedom. She was also a childhood friend of Alva Erskine Smith, the mother of Consuelo Vanderbilt, who probably named her daughter after her.
A third American heiress who married into the British aristocracy was Mary Minnie Stevens, who married General Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget (1851–1928). Lady Paget, as she was known in England, became a successful society hostess. It is thought that she was the matchmaker between Consuelo Vanderbilt and the 9th Duke of Marlborough.
The Buccaneers is also the title of a book by Edith Wharton (1862-1937) which was finished posthumously, and deals with the fate of three American heiresses who married into the British aristocracy.
(See my post The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton).
Mesa-Redonda 