David M. Stark

A New Look at the African Slave Trade in Puerto Rico Through the Use of Parish Registers: 1660–1815

Our knowledge of the volume of slave traffic as well as the geographic origin and ethnicity of slaves introduced into peripheral areas of the Americas, such as the former Spanish colony of Puerto Rico, is limited. Information contained in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century parish baptismal, marriage, and death registers enables us to locate and identify Africans in a number of island communities, including San Juan. Drawing upon data culled from parish registers this study seeks to broaden our understanding of the slave trade to Puerto Rico in the years 1672 to 1810. Few slaves were brought in either from Africa or from elsewhere in the Americas to Puerto Rico, and the supply of these was erratic and limited. Although they were small in number, there was considerable diversity in the geographic origins and ethnicity of African arrivals, with individuals from West and West Central Africa predominating. For the most part, these shared a relatively homogenous culture and a greater similarity insofar as the language(s) they spoke. Such commonalities facilitated integration and promoted social cohesion among the newly arrived Africans as well as those already present in the host population. It also facilitated their integration into what was emerging as a unified Afro-Puerto Rican slave community.

Rescued from Their Invisibility: The Afro-Puerto Ricans of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century San Mateo de Cangrejos, Puerto Rico

The black “root” has been systematically “uprooted” from the main “trunk” of the Puerto Rican nation. Jorge Duany Scholars who study Puerto Ricos past have struggled with the question of how to define the island’s national identity. Is the essence of Puerto Rican identity rooted in Spain, does it have its origins in Africa, in the legacy of the native Tainos, or is it a product of two or all three of these? This polemical question has yet to be resolved and remains a subject of much debate. The islands black past is often overlooked, and what has been written tends to focus on the enslaved labor force and its ties to the nineteenth-century plantation economy. Few works are specifically devoted to the study of the islands seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Afro-Puerto Rican population. Recent scholarship has begun to address this oversight. For example, the efforts of fugitive slaves and free black West Indian migrants making their way to Puerto Rico have been well documented. Yet, little is known about the number or identity of these runaways. How many slaves made their way to freedom in Puerto Rico, who were they, and where did they come from? Perhaps more importantly, what about their new lives on the island? How were they able to create a sense of belonging, both as individuals and as part of a community within the islands existing population and society? What follows strives to answer these questions by taking a closer look first at the number and identity of these fugitives, and second at how new arrivals were assimilated into their new surroundings through marriage and family formation while their integration was facilitated by participation in the local economy. Through their religious and civic activity Afro-Puerto Ricans were able to create a niche for themselves in San Juan and eventually a community of their own in Cangrejos. In doing so, they helped shape the islands national identity.

The Family Tree is Not Cut: Marriage Among Slaves in Eighteenth-Century Puerto Rico

Examines the frequency of slave marriage in 18th-c. Puerto Rico, through family reconstitution based on parish baptismal, marriage, and death registers. Author first sketches the development of slavery, and the work regimens and conditions of the not yet sugar-dominated slavery in Puerto Rico. Then, he describes the religious context and social implications of marriage among slaves, and discusses, through an example, spousal selection patterns, and further focuses on age and seasonality of the slave marriages. He explains that marriage brought some legal advantages for slaves, such as the prohibited separation, by sale, of married slaves. In addition, he explores how slaves pursued marital strategies in order to manipulate material conditions. He concludes from the results that in the 18th c. marriage among slaves was not uncommon, and appear to have been determined mostly by the slaves own choice, with little direct intervention by masters. Most slaves married other slaves, with the same owner.

Preparing for the afterlife: death, dying, and religious practice in eighteenth-century Puerto Rico

Every society possesses deeply rooted attitudes about death, yet much of what we know about the religious practices of ordinary people in colonial Latin America overlooks the way(s) in which people prepared for death and the afterlife. Sacramental records from eighteenth-century Puerto Rican communities provide insights into both religious elements and social aspects of death. The time period selected is important because new sensibilities toward death emerged in the late eighteenth century, with a movement away from elaborate status-affirming funerals toward the embracing of interiorized piety. This article uses sacramental records to examine reception of the last rites, funerary practices, and burial customs in eighteenth-century Puerto Rico. Three questions guide my inquiry: first, did reception of the last rites (penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick) decline in Puerto Rico and, if so, was this related to religious factors or demographic and socioeconomic ones as well; second, how successful were religious authorities in reshaping religious practices manifesting ‘baroque piety’ with a ‘more inward looking piety’: in peripheral areas of the Americas; and third, in what ways did burial customs reflect growing concern with the fear of Hell and time spent in purgatory?

Ties that Bind: Baptismal Sponsorship of Slaves in Eighteenth-Century Puerto Rico

This study broadens our understanding of baptismal sponsorship for slave infants by utilizing family reconstitution to recreate the vital statistics of godparents as well as demographic patterns of behaviour associated with godparenthood in Arecibo (Puerto Rico) from 1735 to 1772. The examination of who served as godparents and why they did so provides insights into the lived experience of enslaved populations. Frequent interaction of whites, blacks, and browns (pardos) as baptismal sponsors blurred social distinctions that possibly mitigated the harsher aspects of slavery. During the eighteenth century, there was both greater flexibility and openness of race relations, and a creolized Afro-Puerto Rican culture slowly developed.

Making the Most of Their Time: Seasonality of Slave Marriage in Eighteenth-Century Puerto Rico

On the morning of 28 December 1768, Antonio and Marı́a, a slave couple belonging to Félix Pagán, were married in the Catholic church of San Germán, Puerto Rico. The event was recorded in the parish marriage register, along with a notation stating no se velaron por ser tiempo prohibido; that is the couple had not received the velación, or solemn nuptial blessing, because it was a forbidden season. Although marriage may be contracted at any time of the year, Church officials frowned upon it during the seasons of Advent and Lent since the velación could not be conferred at this time. Because these seasons were to be marked by abstinence and penance, couples were discouraged from celebrating and consummating their marriage if they had not received the nuptial blessing. Once the penitential season was over, couples wishing to receive the blessing often returned to the church for it to be conferred, which Antonio and Marı́a did. Seventeen days later they appeared before the parish priest Joaquı́n Nazario de Figueroa y Matos, and received the velación. Marriage among slaves was not uncommon in eighteenth-century Puerto Rico and neither was it unusual for them to be joined in matrimony during the forbidden seasons, especially Advent. Marriage is the one demographic event usually thought to be the most subject to individual human control, with its timing reflecting explicit preference. But this was not the case for slaves, especially, whose lived experience was shaped by work (Berlin and Morgan 1993). It is quite likely that the physical exertion stemming from the planting and harvesting of crops, as well as the demand of labor regimens associated with animal husbandry and cattle ranching, diminished the likelihood of marriage at certain times of the year. To what extent, however, is not clear. In addition to the exigencies of the agricultural and pastoral economy, slaves also had to observe religious proscriptions associated with the liturgical calendar (Cressy 1985, 4; 1997, 301; Gunn 1990, 217). As noted above, marriage was discouraged during certain

Race and Labor in the Hispanic Caribbean: The West Indian Immigrant Worker Experience in Puerto Rico, 1800-1850 (review)

demonstrates the politico-economic conflict at the heart of the expulsions, and the utter complicity of federal and state PRI officials who claimed the expulsions were indigenous religious conflicts and none of their business. Her work will be of interest to scholars of Chiapas and the Maya, to NGO staff working in Latin American human rights and development, and all connected with the Catholic Church’s programs in Latin America.