#DoTheKnowledge...; Angel Ramirez-Jordan: My Im Not Spanish Video has gotten a lot of hate from the Latin community…. You cant make a statement unless you do your research…. I did mine. Now do yours! When the Spaniards arrived in the island of Borinken (Puerto Rico), they were greeted by the peaceful Taíno tribes in the island. The Spaniards soon took advantage of the Taínos good faith and enslaved them; forcing them to work in the gold mines. Many Taínos died as a result of either the cruel treatment that they had received or of the smallpox disease epidemic which had attacked the island. Many Taínos either committed suicide or left the island after a failed Taíno revolt of 1511. This presented a problem for the Spanish Crown since they depended on slavery. Their solution was to import slaves from Africa and as a consequence the vast majority of the Africans who immigrated to Puerto Rico did so as a result of the slave trade, not free men. In 1517, the Spanish Crown permitted its subjects to import twelve slaves each in what became the beginning of the slave trade in the New World. The Africans came from the Gold Coast (Ghana), Nigeria and Dahomey (Benin), or the region known as the area of Guineas, the Slave Coast. However, the vast majority came from the Yorubas and Igbo tribe from Nigeria and the Bantus from the Guineas. There were elements of Fantes, Baules, Mandingo, Mande and Wolof tribes too. The Church felt that by Christianizing the slaves, it would render them with a set culture. It worked the other way around too, since the black slaves came to Puerto Rico with a rich and deep culture of their own which the indigenous Indians readily imitated, creating a common bond between them. TAINOS and AFRICANS bonded TOGETHER!!!! The number of slaves in Puerto Rico rose from 1,500 in 1530 to 15,000 by 1555. The slaves were branded on the forehead with a stamp so people would know they were brought in legally and that way they couldnt be kidnapped. The slave learned to speak the language of their masters. They enriched the Puerto Rican Spanish language by adding some words of their own and educated their children with what they had learned from their masters. The Spaniards considered the Africans superior to the Taínos, since the Taínos were unwilling to bow down. The slave had no choice but to convert to Christianity, they were baptized by the Catholic Church and assumed the surnames of their masters. Many slaves who would not convert were subject to harsh treatment which in cases included rape. The Conquistadors arrived WITHOUT women and most of them raped the Africans and Taínos creating a mixture of races that was to become known as the mestizos or mulattos. This mixture was to become the bases of the Puerto Rican people. The Tri-Race… But Yet Puerto Ricans love to forget theyre Roots. With such strong African roots. By 1570, the gold mines were declared empty. The Spanish Crown basically ignored Puerto Rico by changing the routes of the west to the north. The island became mainly a garrison for the ships. The Spanish Crown definitely left. It left behind only a few soldiers to man the garrisons. Africans from British and French possessions in the Caribbean were encouraged to immigrate to Puerto Rico, and as freemen provided a population base to support the Puerto Rican garrison and its forts. The Spanish decree of 1789 allowed the slaves to earn or buy their freedom. However, this did little to help them in their situation and eventually many slaves rebelled, most notably in the revolt against Spanish rule known as the Grito de Lares“. On March 22, 1873, slavery was finally abolished in Puerto Rico. #IKYG
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:24:17 +0000
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