An Areito of Freedom and Survival Slavery In Puerto Rico

We must not forget the fact people owned other people in Puerto Rico since 1508. Agreat war was fought by the Guanahatabey, Taino and Caribs to remain free. Alwaysremember, we are descendants of those Indigenous people who eventually became slaves.Eventually the Indigenous people in Puerto Rico were freed by the king of Spain. There wasa vacuum created that had to be filled.Slavery in Puerto Rico has always been sanctioned by the Catholic church. If a personworshipped other gods and didn’t believe in the teachings of Jesus, they were consideredless than and eligible to become enslaved. There was an attitude that the Spanish carriedwith them into the New World.I’m whiter than you and a Catholic. You are uncivilized, sacrifice people, worship andpray to the demon, therefore you are less than me. You have gold and I want itbecause it is mine. I am presently a nobody and want to become an hijo de algo (Ason of something), and I need you to mine it.During the year of 1873 enslavement of Africans and their descendants was finally endedin Puerto Rico. This genealogy work centers around the descendants of African slaves whowere forced to work in the Hacienda Iruena. Eventually they were freed and some remainedworking at Iruena under Juan Labadie and his wife Cornelia Pellot.History records that The Hacienda Iruena contained the largest number of people whowere slaves in Moca, Puerto Rico. The produce that was grown was coffee and sugar.