Friedrich Ludwig Escher

Friedrich Ludwig Escher, also known as Fritz Escher and hispanized as Federico Luis Escher (21 August 1779 – 13 December 1845), was a Swiss merchant, plantation owner, and slaveholder who lived on the Buen Retiro plantation near Artemisa, Cuba.[1][2][3]

Life

Family

Friedrich Ludwig Escher was born into the Zürich-based Escher vom Glas family. He was the fourth of nine children and the third son of Hans Caspar Escher (18 March 1755, Zürich – 2 March 1831, St. Petersburg),[4][5] a banker and merchant involved in the slave trade, and his wife Anna (30 June 1756, Zürich – 17 August 1836, Zürich), daughter of city captain Hans Kaspar Keller vom Steinbock (1727–1793). His siblings included Heinrich Escher and Ferdinand Escher. His nephew was Alfred Escher.[6]

Friedrich Ludwig Escher was likely buried in Artemisa, though his grave no longer exists.[7]

Career

In 1798, he followed his father, who, after speculating in French securities and facing bankruptcy,[8] had left Zürich and emigrated to Russia in 1789. His brother Ferdinand later joined them. Their father became a major in the Russian army in 1792[9] and recruited Swiss emigrants for a colony in St. Petersburg. Friedrich Ludwig Escher and his brother also worked in St. Petersburg as emigration agents, after pursuing military and commercial careers in Russian service. Despite financial support from their brother Heinrich and the Russian state, their emigration venture, Zürichthal on the Crimean Peninsula,[10][11][12] became a disaster for settlers in 1803/1804 and a financial failure for the Eschers.[13][14] In 1810, Friedrich Ludwig Escher brought his old school friend Johannes von Muralt, a pastor, to serve the German Reformed congregation in St. Petersburg.[15] In 1815, he and his brother Ferdinand were arrested by Russian authorities and charged with illegal trading. After their release in 1819, they managed to travel unrecognized through Zürich to Cuba, arriving in 1820 or 1821.

In Cuba, with financial support from their brother Heinrich, they likely purchased the Buen Retiro coffee plantation near Artemisa in 1821 from Hans Heinrich Studer (Stouder) of Winterthur and possibly another owner, Martin Stouder.[16] Though smaller than other regional plantations, Buen Retiro was profitable due to its proximity to other coffee plantations and shared transport routes to the ports of Havana and Mariel.[17] Experienced enslaved men, women, and children were employed in coffee production. Around 1822, the plantation had 82 field slaves and five house slaves. In 1826, Ferdinand Escher returned to Zürich, while Friedrich Ludwig Escher remained in Cuba. He lived on the plantation and in nearby Artemisa, employing a manager named Heinrich (Enrique) Steiner from 1839 but overseeing operations himself. Until his death in 1845, he successfully managed production, sales, and the plantation’s maintenance and development.[18]

In his 1845 will, Friedrich Ludwig Escher listed 86 enslaved individuals. After his death in 1846, an inventory of his estate was compiled, including the land, buildings, mansion, equipment, crops, livestock, and a townhouse in Artemisa, along with the enslaved men, women, and children. He bequeathed the Artemisa townhouse and its land to his manager; the remaining estate, valued at nearly 40,000 silver pesos, was left to Heinrich Escher in Zürich.[19]

He freed Serafina (1824–1846), a house slave, and her daughter Albertina Escher (c. 1842 – after 1891 in Havana), baptized in June 1845,[20] in 1845. He was likely Albertina’s father, though paternity was not definitively established.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ González Fernández, Marcelo (2018). La hacienda cafetalera cubana en el siglo XIX: El caso del Buen Retiro (in Spanish). Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales. pp. 87–92.
  2. ^ Zeuske, Michael (2018). "Esclavitud y redes familiares transnacionales: Los Escher en Cuba (1790–1850)". Illes I Imperis (in Spanish). 20: 145–168. doi:10.1344/IE2018.20.7.
  3. ^ Roth, Andreas, ed. (2015). Schweizer in Lateinamerika: Migration, Wirtschaft und Kultur im 19. Jahrhundert (in German). Zürich: Chronos Verlag. pp. 112–115.
  4. ^ "Historisches Familienlexikon der Schweiz - Familienübersicht" [Historical Family Lexicon of Switzerland - Family Overview]. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  5. ^ "Family tree of Hans Caspar Escher vom Glas". Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  6. ^ Jung, Joseph (2006). Alfred Escher 1819–1882: Aufstieg, Macht, Tragik (in German). Zürich: NZZ Libro. pp. 34–36. ISBN 978-3-03823-236-0.
  7. ^ Zeuske, Michael (2018). "Esclavitud y redes familiares transnacionales: Los Escher en Cuba (1790–1850)". Illes I Imperis (in Spanish). 20: 162. doi:10.1344/IE2018.20.7.
  8. ^ "Avertissement" [Advertisement]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). 1 October 1788. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  9. ^ "Erik-Amburger-Datenbank - Datensatz anzeigen" [Erik Amburger Database - Record Display]. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  10. ^ "Krim, zwischen dem Schwarzen Meer und dem Asowschen Meer gelegene, mit dem Festland über die Landenge von Perekop verbundene Halbinsel, die seit 1783 Teil des Russischen Reiches war" [Crimea, a peninsula located between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, connected to the mainland by the Perekop Isthmus, part of the Russian Empire since 1783]. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  11. ^ Dominik Wunderlin. "Schweizer am Schwarzen Meer" [Swiss at the Black Sea] (PDF). Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  12. ^ Joseph Jung (29 July 2022). The Laboratory of Progress: Switzerland in the Nineteenth Century, Volume 1. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-62473-1. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  13. ^ "Wie Schweizer Lumpenproletarier die Krim-Halbinsel erblühen liessen" [How Swiss Lumpenproletariat Made the Crimean Peninsula Flourish] (in German). Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  14. ^ Joseph Buchmann. "Emigration to Zurichtal, Crimea, Russia". Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  15. ^ Hermann Dalton (1876). Johannes von Muralt. Eine Pädagogen- und Pastoren-Gestalt der Schweiz und Russlands aus der ersten Hälfte des XIX. Jahrhunderts. [With a portrait.]. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  16. ^ David, Thomas (2012). Schweizer Kaufleute und Plantagenbesitzer in Kuba im 19. Jahrhundert (in German). Zürich: Chronos Verlag. pp. 78–82.
  17. ^ Zeuske, Michael (2019). "Tod bei Artemisa: Friedrich Ludwig Escher, Atlantic Slavery und die Akkumulation von Schweizer Kapital außerhalb der Schweiz". Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte (in German). 69 (1): 6–26. doi:10.3209/2019_1_6.
  18. ^ Zeuske, Michael (2018). "Esclavitud y redes familiares transnacionales: Los Escher en Cuba (1790–1850)". Illes I Imperis (in Spanish). 20: 150–155. doi:10.1344/IE2018.20.7.
  19. ^ Zeuske, Michael (2019). "Tod bei Artemisa: Friedrich Ludwig Escher, Atlantic Slavery und die Akkumulation von Schweizer Kapital außerhalb der Schweiz". Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte (in German). 69 (1): 20–22. doi:10.3209/2019_1_6.
  20. ^ Michael Zeuske (26 August 2024). "Albertina Escher". Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  21. ^ Zeuske, Michael (2018). "Esclavitud y redes familiares transnacionales: Los Escher en Cuba (1790–1850)". Illes I Imperis (in Spanish). 20: 158–162. doi:10.1344/IE2018.20.7.

Bibliography

  • Friedrich Ludwig Escher. In: C. Keller-Escher: Fünfhundert und sechzig Jahre aus der Geschichte der Familie Escher vom Glas, Teil 2 Genealogie. Zürich 1885. Family tree 10, no. 184 (Digital copy).
  • Friedrich Ludwig Escher. In: Michael Max Paul Zeuske: Tod bei Artemisa: Friedrich Ludwig Escher, Atlantic Slavery und die Akkumulation von Schweizer Kapital ausserhalb der Schweiz. In: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, Volume 69. 2019. pp. 6–26 (Digital copy).
  • Friedrich Ludwig Escher. In: Marcel Brengard, Frank Schubert, Lukas Zürcher: Die Beteiligung der Stadt Zürich sowie der Zürcherinnen und Zürcher an Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel vom 17. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert. Bericht zu Handen des Präsidialdepartements der Stadt Zürich. Zürich 2020. pp. 36–38 (Digital copy).
  • Michael Zeuske. "Friedrich Ludwig Escher" [Friedrich Ludwig Escher]. Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
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