Puerto Rico Slave Registration After the Moret Law Listing a 31 Year Old Enslaved "Negro Claro" Identified Man, 1871

Slavery Puerto Rico

Manuscript & Autographs

Puerto Rican slave registration document from 1871, recording the legal identity, ownership, agricultural occupation, and physical classification of a named thirty one year old enslaved man in Arecibo during the final years of slavery under Spanish colonial rule. Issued after Spain's 1870 Moret Law had initiated a limited process of emancipation but nearly two years before abolition in Puerto Rico, the cédula placed Fruto within a registration system designed to record enslaved people by name, occupation, owner, residence, civil status, and identifying physical characteristics. His classification as “negro claro,” his occupation as “labrador,” and his ownership by the succession of D. Manuel Ortiz place racial designation, agricultural labor, and property status together within the administrative machinery of colonial slavery.

Registro de Esclavos, Isla de Puerto Rico. Arecibo, Puerto Rico, March 15, 1871. Single printed and manuscript cédula, folio no. 1747. The document identifies this enslaved man, “propiedad de la Sucn. de D. Manuel Ortiz,” thirty one years old, a native of Puerto Rico, single, and “de oficio labrador.” He is recorded as “no está coartado” and as residing in the barrio of Santana. The fields for parents, spouse, and children are left blank. The printed “Filiacion” column subjects his body to a standardized identifying description: regular stature, “Color negro claro,” sparse hair, sparse beard, large eyes, a regular nose, and a further description of the mouth partially obscured by worming. A one peseta fiscal stamp at lower left is cancelled by an official marking. The lower portion carries the signatures or attestations of the “Registrador,” “El dueño,” and “El Comisario,” with the owner's portion apparently signed on behalf of the succession by Francisco Aguirre. The verso bears ink offsetting, and staining associated with subsequent administrative handling.

This man's cédula was produced within a rapidly changing legal regime. The Moret Law of 1870 granted freedom to specified categories of enslaved people, including those aged sixty and older, those belonging to the state, and children born after September 17, 1868, while leaving many others, including a thirty one year old agricultural laborer such as this individual, legally enslaved. His notation as “no está coartado” further records that he had not entered coartación, the mechanism through which an enslaved person could purchase freedom incrementally. The document's ownership by the “Sucn. de D. Manuel Ortiz” also records the treatment of an enslaved person as property within an estate, with his legal ownership continuing through the succession rather than ending with the death of the named enslaver. On March 22, 1873, the Spanish National Assembly abolished slavery in Puerto Rico, compensating former enslavers while requiring the emancipated population to enter labor contracts for an additional three years. Moderate toning and staining, scattered wormholes with small losses affecting several manuscript entries, minor edge losses and a larger loss at the lower right edge; principal manuscript information and signatures remain legible. Overall good condition. An individually named record of the administrative system that converted this individuals race, body, agricultural labor, residence, civil status, and legal ownership into the identifying data of slavery less than two years before abolition in Puerto Rico.

Item #23798

Price: $850.00