Natalia, a female slave from Puerto Rico, explicates with reasons her desires for independence and abolition movements in her native homeland of Puerto Rico. After many years of strenous deeds and a difficult lifestyle, she tells her story about her freedom and the difficult journey others like her have faced.
Before I explain about our position as slaves here in Puerto Rico, I must inform others of our island’s history. For many many years slaves all throughout the Caribbean islands have been treated horribly; to be a slave is a weary, upsetting job. I’ve heard from others that have escaped from slavery, others like me, that between 1735 and 1834 there had been about 57 slave revolts or uprisings throughout the Caribbean. That’s one uprising every other year. We were treated wrongly and even though there are only so few slaves in Puerto Rico, freedom is a general desire.
The Spanish rule over our nation like a hovering storm cloud that can, with one strike of lightning burn down a tree. They have taken advantage of Puerto Rico and have taken it upon themselves to twist and change the laws in order to suppress our individual liberties as well as taking away from our constitutional rights. The Spaniards made a law that enforced the payment of taxes that were meant to pay for the suffering that Spain went through after the Napoleonic invasion.
For most of my life, the Spaniards had introduced laws that took away my rights as well as encouraging acts and events such as dancing, drinking and gambling. These acts are merely out of the hope that we would eventually become distracted from our Puerto Rican (political) activities. It was there way to protect their control and leadership and not be overthrown by a slave rebellion. Other ideas idiotico son the laws that allowed the punishment of a lazy employee, a law that disables the movement from one residence to another as well as a law that banned mustaches and goatees. All of us slaves from the fields where we worked could see that Spain was abusing their power and introducing laws wherever they could in order to control every aspect of our lives. We needed to take action and we needed to take action before we would never be able to escape.
Slaves all throughout Puerto Rico were revolting against slavery in whatever way that they could. Those who worked in the fields hoped that by braking tools and working improperly and poorly they could stunt and ruin their master’s food. Those women who were lucky enough to work within the houses themselves managed to poison food since they had access to medicine, liquor, and other household items that they could use as weapons.
As tales go, it was not uncommon for slaves to commit suicide or self mutilation. I have heard of many occasions where slave women cut their wrists, covered their wounds with dirt and covered them in order to provoke infection and disease. Others just hung or killed themselves by jumping off of slave ships with weights to make them sink and drown. Many of these slave ship revolts were unsuccessful although some, such as a revellion where slaves seizes a ships crew and killed the captain and the cook. They were able to gain control of the ship itself and pleaded that international trade laws were violated by the Spanish. This was lead by Joseph Clinque, a price from Sierra Leone. Many other revolts like this one occurred in Puerto Rico and in other Caribbean nations.Maroons, or runaway slaves, managed to escape from the terrors of hard labor and brutality at home.
The first talk of independence that I ever experienced was from several Puerto Rican independence conspirators. One of these people was a woman named Maria Mercedes Barbudo. She used to hold meetings within her home where she would talk of independence and Puerto Rican rights. Why, I never thought of the Spanish as brutal until now… her ideas opened my old, worn eyes to everything around me. Unfortunately, I was never able to be a part of her independence groups since I did not gain my freedom until the past couple years after I escaped with other Maroon and she was deported and exiled to Cuba by our governor de la Torre because of her beliefs.
I can proudly say that Puerto Rico will one day gain its full independence from Spain; not only will the slaves be given their freedom, but Puerto Rico will be released from Spain’s strong grip. One day Puerto Rico will be able to make rules for itself and not depend on Spain for economical support. It seems to me that the only reason that Puerto Rico is still ruled by Espana is because we are afraid of what would happen to our nation if they suddenly let go. All these revolts will take place and will eventually produce a nation we’ll be proud of; one full of liberty. The Spanish will not know that we are going to rise up against them… no language barriers nor lack of education will keep up from gaining our rights. No nation will hold us slaves back from our freedom. It will one day be so close that we will be able to taste it and Spain will have no choice but to unlock our cells and set us free.
Natalia de San Juntes
(Picture citation: http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/img/slaves.jpg)
Before I explain about our position as slaves here in Puerto Rico, I must inform others of our island’s history. For many many years slaves all throughout the Caribbean islands have been treated horribly; to be a slave is a weary, upsetting job. I’ve heard from others that have escaped from slavery, others like me, that between 1735 and 1834 there had been about 57 slave revolts or uprisings throughout the Caribbean. That’s one uprising every other year. We were treated wrongly and even though there are only so few slaves in Puerto Rico, freedom is a general desire.
The Spanish rule over our nation like a hovering storm cloud that can, with one strike of lightning burn down a tree. They have taken advantage of Puerto Rico and have taken it upon themselves to twist and change the laws in order to suppress our individual liberties as well as taking away from our constitutional rights. The Spaniards made a law that enforced the payment of taxes that were meant to pay for the suffering that Spain went through after the Napoleonic invasion.
For most of my life, the Spaniards had introduced laws that took away my rights as well as encouraging acts and events such as dancing, drinking and gambling. These acts are merely out of the hope that we would eventually become distracted from our Puerto Rican (political) activities. It was there way to protect their control and leadership and not be overthrown by a slave rebellion. Other ideas idiotico son the laws that allowed the punishment of a lazy employee, a law that disables the movement from one residence to another as well as a law that banned mustaches and goatees. All of us slaves from the fields where we worked could see that Spain was abusing their power and introducing laws wherever they could in order to control every aspect of our lives. We needed to take action and we needed to take action before we would never be able to escape.
Slaves all throughout Puerto Rico were revolting against slavery in whatever way that they could. Those who worked in the fields hoped that by braking tools and working improperly and poorly they could stunt and ruin their master’s food. Those women who were lucky enough to work within the houses themselves managed to poison food since they had access to medicine, liquor, and other household items that they could use as weapons.
As tales go, it was not uncommon for slaves to commit suicide or self mutilation. I have heard of many occasions where slave women cut their wrists, covered their wounds with dirt and covered them in order to provoke infection and disease. Others just hung or killed themselves by jumping off of slave ships with weights to make them sink and drown. Many of these slave ship revolts were unsuccessful although some, such as a revellion where slaves seizes a ships crew and killed the captain and the cook. They were able to gain control of the ship itself and pleaded that international trade laws were violated by the Spanish. This was lead by Joseph Clinque, a price from Sierra Leone. Many other revolts like this one occurred in Puerto Rico and in other Caribbean nations.Maroons, or runaway slaves, managed to escape from the terrors of hard labor and brutality at home.
The first talk of independence that I ever experienced was from several Puerto Rican independence conspirators. One of these people was a woman named Maria Mercedes Barbudo. She used to hold meetings within her home where she would talk of independence and Puerto Rican rights. Why, I never thought of the Spanish as brutal until now… her ideas opened my old, worn eyes to everything around me. Unfortunately, I was never able to be a part of her independence groups since I did not gain my freedom until the past couple years after I escaped with other Maroon and she was deported and exiled to Cuba by our governor de la Torre because of her beliefs.
I can proudly say that Puerto Rico will one day gain its full independence from Spain; not only will the slaves be given their freedom, but Puerto Rico will be released from Spain’s strong grip. One day Puerto Rico will be able to make rules for itself and not depend on Spain for economical support. It seems to me that the only reason that Puerto Rico is still ruled by Espana is because we are afraid of what would happen to our nation if they suddenly let go. All these revolts will take place and will eventually produce a nation we’ll be proud of; one full of liberty. The Spanish will not know that we are going to rise up against them… no language barriers nor lack of education will keep up from gaining our rights. No nation will hold us slaves back from our freedom. It will one day be so close that we will be able to taste it and Spain will have no choice but to unlock our cells and set us free.
Natalia de San Juntes
(Picture citation: http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/img/slaves.jpg)
