May 2005 | Back to News
Sugar & Slavery at Hacienda La Esperanza
A Symposium on Interpreting 19th-Century Slavery in Puerto Rico and the Spanish Caribbean held May 23-25, 2005, in Manatí and San Juan, Puerto Rico
With the Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico, JCC&A organized a symposium on slavery—a rare public discussion in Puerto Rico of an institution that profoundly shaped the island’s history and identity. Leading scholars participated in the three-day gathering, which focused on Hacienda La Esperanza, one of the largest Puerto Rican sugar plantations in the late 19th-century. Speakers examined aspects of Caribbean slavery relevant to the experiences of scores of Africans forced to work in the harsh conditions of La Esperanza’s sugar-cane fields—and of their descendants. The gathering concluded with a roundtable exploring how the scholars’ presentations and open discussions can contribute to public interpretation of slavery in Puerto Rico.
- Sessions:
- Hacienda La Esperanza Site Visit and Orientation
- Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico Revisited
- Slave Families and Formal Religious Practices in Cayey
- Hacienda La Esperanza in the Context of the 19th-Century Slavery and Sugar
- Slavery and its Aftermath in Northeastern Puerto Rico: Memory Today
- Empire, Slavery and Abolition in Spain
- The Slave Diet
- Racial Relations in the Caribbean
- Interpreting Slavery: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- Black Folklore and the Contemporary Erasure of Slavery in Puerto Rico
- Interpreting Slavery: Hacienda La Esperanza
- Session presenters:
- Astrid Cubano Iguina, Professor of History, University of Puerto Rico
- Rex Ellis, Vice President, Historic Area at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- Juan Giusti Cordero, Professor of History, University of Puerto Rico
- Isar Godreau, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin
- Jorge Giovannetti, Department of History, University of Puerto Rico
- Cruz Ortiz Cuadra, Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico
- Fernando Picó, Professor of History, University of Puerto Rico
- Francisco Scarano, Professor of History and Director, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, Associate Professor of History and Director, Latin American and Latino Studies Institute, Fordham University
