1. For the Freedom of Enslaved Infants in Puerto Rico,
1850s
02/05/2014 10:46 am ET | Updated Apr 07, 2014
 Virginia Sanchez-Korrol Historian & Professor Emerita, CUNY-Brooklyn College

On a quiet Sunday afternoon in 1856, two gentlemen stood inconspicuously by the Plaza Mayor de Mayagüez, where it is
said the bones of ancient Tainos and their Spanish conquerors are buried beneath the marble tiles from when it was
originally a cemetery. The well dressed,educated men belonged to the landowners' class.One man was a lawyer, the othera
physician. They stood close enough to the side door of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria to be able to intercept enslaved
women before they entered the church.
When young mothers approached the side door with newborn infants in their arms intending to have the children baptized
into the Catholic Faith, the men stepped forward with a tantalizing offer. They offered to buy the baby's freedom before the
sacrament was administered, for it was then that the child's freedom could be purchased for bargain prices. An unbaptized
child carrying the stigma of Original Sin was worth only twenty-five pesos,half the price of a baptized child.
The physician, Ramón Emeterio Betances, the lawyer, Segundo Ruiz Belvis and Dr. José Francisco Basora were among a
cohort of young Puerto Rican Criollos who had been educated in Europe during a period of progressive intellectual thought,
political and economic change.Dr. Betances, himself, had taken part in the 1848 liberal revolution in France, one of many
European liberal revolts during that period. Soon after he came home he organized the Puerto Rican Revolutionary
Committee.
For the young professionals,returning to Puerto Rico after completing their studies abroad was a culture shock.Stunned to
find their own country mired in an antiquated political-economic systemthat enforced a full-blown slave society and
economy, when all the other islands in the Caribbean (except Cuba) and Latin America had abolished slavery decades
before, the Criollos set about to organize a secret society for abolition and independence.The abolitionists pressed for the
end of slavery through legislative channels in the Spanish Parliament, but they also agreed to act clandestinely in secret
societies and Masonic lodges to bring about the demise of the abusive practice.
Akin to the Underground Railroad in the United States,Puerto Rican abolitionists facilitated boats for transporting fugitive
slaves to the neighboring islands, such as St. Thomas, and to the United States.They supported education for free and
enslaved blacks. And they bought the freedom of enslaved babies by giving the mothers much needed money to purchase
their child's freedom. Technically, the abolitionists were acting within the letter of the law since manumission was permitted
under the slave codes of Puerto Rico. But it was still up to the slave owner to accept the deal.
For his role in the movement, Dr. Betances was exiled to Paris in 1859. Dr. Basora escaped to New York where he joined
Cuban separatists in the liberation movement. And as part of a commission to the Spanish Parliament, Don Ruiz Belvis
continued to fight against slavery.
The gradual abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico began in 1873 when the Moret Law permitted children born since 1873,
their freedom. It also freed enslaved men and women over sixty years of age. By law, all others were forced to work an
additional three years as indemnity to their owners.The actions of the abolitionists and the continued resistance to slavery
among enslaved and enlightened persons for decades before the Moret Law should not be underestimated.
MORE:
Latin America, Fr éducation,Cuba, Underground Railroad, St. Thomas, Spanish Parliament, Segundo Ruiz Belvis, Slave
Society, Plaza Mayor De Mayaguez, Enslaved Women, Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee, Jose Francisco Basora,
Ramon Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican Criollos, Nuestra Senora De La Candelaria, Abolition, Manumission, Tainos,
Caribbean