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Coffee and Rural Proletarianization in Puerto Rico, 1840–1898*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Laird W. Bergad
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Extract

The development of a labor force has become an important focus of recent historical research on 19th-century Puerto Rico. One center of investigation has been slavery and its linkages to sugar culture.1 Until recently historians had consistently stressed the relative insignificance of slave labor in Puerto Rico.2 However, by focusing at the municipal, or even hacienda level, scholars have begun to generate a more analytical view of 19th-century Puerto Rican slavery. It has been shown that slaves were critical for Puerto Rican planters during the period of rapid sugar expansion in the 1820s and 1830s, and continued as an important source of labor until abolition in 1873. Contrary to prior interpretations, the history of slavery in Puerto Rico differed little from that of the other sugar producing islands of the Caribbean

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Articles
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Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , May 1983 , pp. 83 - 100
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

1 See Francisco, Scarano, ‘Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico: The Municipality of Ponce, 1815–1849’, Ph.D. Thesis, Columbia University, 1978;Google ScholarJosé, Curet, ‘From Slave to Liberto: A Study on Slavery and Its Abolition in Puerto Rico, 1840–1880’, Ph.D. Thesis, Columbia University, 1980;Google ScholarGuillermo, A. Baralt, ‘Slave Conspiracies and Uprisings in Puerto Rico, 1796–1848’, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Chicago, 1977;Google Scholar and Benjamín, Nisral-Moret, ‘El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria y del apostol San Matías de Manatí, 1800–1880: Its Ruling Classes and the Institution of Black Slavery’, Ph.D. Thesis, SUNY, Stony Brook, 1977.Google Scholar

2 The traditional view of slavery in Puerto Rico has maintained that slave labor was relatively unimportant to 19th-century Puerto Rican sugar plantations. See Luis, M. Díaz Soler, Historia de la esclavitud negra en Puerto Rico (Río Piedras; Editorial Universitaria, 1974 edition);Google ScholarSidney, Mintz, ‘Labor and Sugar in Puerto Rico and Jamaica’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 1, no. 3 (1959), pp. 273–281;Google Scholar and David, Turnbull, Cuba, with notices of Porto Rico and the Slave Trade (London, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1840). A central problem with these studies is that they used global demographic data to ascertain the importance of slavery in Puerto Rico. Admittedly, slaves never accounted for more than 12% of total population in the 19th century, while in Cuba, for example, slaves were over 50% of total population at one point early in the 19th century. However, hitherto, few scholars focused on the sugar municipalities and haciendas themselves. These new studies, cited above, have examined the micro level and have discovered the heavy dependence of sugar production on slave labor.Google Scholar

3 Especially noteworthy is Francisco Scarano's intensive study of Ponce from 1815 to 1849. See Scarano, ‘Sugar and Slavery.’ See also Curet, ‘From Slave to Liberto.’

4 See Labor, Gómez Acevedo, Organiación y reglamentación del trabajo en el Puerto Rico del siglo xix (propietarios y jornaleros) (San Juan, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 1970);Google ScholarSidney, Mintz, ‘The Role of Forced Labour in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico’, Caribbean Historical Review, vol. 2 (1951), pp. 134–141;Google ScholarFernando, Picé, Registro de jornaleros, Utuado, Puerto Rico (1849–1850) (Río Piedras, Ediciones Huracán, 1976);Google Scholar and Fernando, Picó, Libertady servidumbre en el Puerto Rico del siglo XIX: Los jornaleros utuadeños en vícperas del auge del café (Río Piedras, Ediciones Huracán, 1979). This last study is the best to date on the impact of the 1849 jornalero law.Google Scholar

5 The most influential proponent of these views is Angel Quintero Rivera. See Angel, Quintero Rivera ‘La clase obrera y el proceso político en Puerto Rico’, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, vol. 18, Nos. 1–2 (1974), pp. 147–198;Google ScholarAngel, Quintero Rivera ‘Background to the Emergence of Imperialist Capitalism in Puerto Rico’ in Adalberto, López and James, Petras (eds.), Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans: Studies in History and Society (New York, Halstead Press, 1974);Google Scholar and Angel, Quintero Rivera, Conflictos de clase y política en Puerto Rico (Río Piedras, Ediciones Huracán, 1976).Google Scholar

6 In 1812 the value of Puerto Rican coffee production was 512, 261, pesos to sugar's 508,375 pesos. See Archivo General de Puerto Rico (hereafter AGPR), Records of the Spanish Governors (hereafter RSGPR) Political and Civil Affairs, Censo y Riqueza 1801–1820, box 11, entry 9.

7 For the best account of sugar's expansion in the first half of the 19th century see Scarano, ‘Sugar and Slavery’, chapter 1 (Sugar in the Puerto Rican Economy, 1815 –1849). Sugar production increased from 18.8 to 100.7 million pounds between 1828 and 1849 while coffee production declined in the same period from 11.2 to 8.6 million pounds. See Colón, E. D., Datos sobre la agricultura en Puerto Rico antes de 1898 (San Juan, Tip. de Cantero Fernández, 1930), p. 290.Google Scholar

8 For a description of soils and rainfall patterns that made the western highland zones of Puerto Rico so suitable for coffee, see Roberts, R. C., Soil Survey of Puerto Rico (Washington, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1942), pp. 94–102.Google Scholar

9 For this process in the 1850s and 1860s see Laird, W. Bergad, ‘Toward Puerto Rico's Grito de Lares: Coffee, Social Stratification, and Class Conflicts, 1828–1868’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 4 (1980), pp. 617–642.Google Scholar

10 By 1897 coffee exports were worth 12.22 million pesos and 70.1% of Puerto Rico's total exports to sugar's 4.01 million pesos and 23.0% of total export value. See Colón, , Datos de la agricultura, pp. 289–291.Google Scholar Also see Puerto, Rico, Intendencia General de Hacienda, Estadística general del comercio exterior de la provincia de Puerto Rico (San Juan, Imp. de Acosta, 1862–1898).Google Scholar

11 This article is based primarily on local level archival research in the municipalities of Lares and Yauco, two centers of Puerto Rican coffee production in the 19th century. Much material is drawn from Laird, W. Bergad, Coffee and the Growth of Agrarian Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico (forthcoming, Princeton University Press). In Lares between 1846 and 1865 acreage sown in coffee increased from 852 to 2,076 cuerdas (i cuerda = 0.97 acres) while acreage in food crops declined from 2,640 to 1,390 cuerdas. During the same period population increased from c. 5,500 to 13,336. The per capita decline in the cultivation of food crops was even more drastic; from 0.48 cuerdas/person in 1846 to 0.10 cuerdas/person in 1865. See AGPR-Fondo Municipal de Lares (hereafter FML), Provisional Box (hereafter PB) 42, ‘Censo de almas y estadística, 1846’, and PB, 39, ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año de 1865. Relación por barrio del número de cuerdas cultivadas de frutos menores en el presente año en el partido.’Google Scholar

12 See Bergad, Coffee and the Growth of Agrarian Capitalism, chapter 3, ‘The Expansion of Coffee Production, 1850–1885’, section 3.2, ‘Immigrant Merchants.’

13 For coffee prices see ‘Libros de Contabilidad de Castañer Hermanos (hereafter LCCH) Diarios, 1875–1885’, and AGPR, ‘Diario no. 1, corresponde a la casa mercantil Amador Frontera, 1869–1878.’

14 In the municipality of Lares there were 622 landowners in 1867; 521 in 1885. In this same period population increased from c. 15,00 to c. 20,000. See AGPR-FML, PB 24, ‘Padrón de terreno correspondiente al año económico de 1866–67’ and AGPR-FML, PB 1, ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año económico de 1885 a 1886. Padrón general de riqueza agrícola.’

15 For coffee prices see LCCH, Diarios 1885–1897. The mean price per cuerda of land sold in Lares increased from 72.83 pesos in 1885 to 123.21 pesos in 1898. See AGPR-Fondo de Protocolos Notariales (hereafter FPN), San, Sebastián y Lares, ventas de terreno 1885 and 1898. Land planted in coffee increased from 2,072 cuerdas in 1865 to 8,446 cuerdas in 1897. Se AGPR-FML, PB 35 ‘Ayuntamiento de Lares. Ejercicio de 1897 a 98. Expediente instruido para proceder…a la riqueza territorial de este pueblo….’Google Scholar

16 For the best consideration of this see Scarano, ‘Sugar and Slavery’ and Curet, ‘From Slave to Liberto.’ In Mayagüez, municipal archival records indicate that slaves were almost the exclusive source of labor on the 25 sugar haciendas in 1848. See Archivo Municipal de Mayagüez (hereafter AMM), vol. 6, 1874, ‘Razón de número de haciendas de caña que hay en este pueblo.’

17 AGPR-RSGPR, Political and Civil Affairs, Censo y Riqueza 1836–1839, box 4, entry 9, ‘Moca. Estado que manifiesta las haciendas que hai en el espresado pueblo, noviembre, 1847.’ There were 363 slaves and 130 free salaried laborers working on the Moca coffee haciendas in 1847.

18 In 1846 the population of Lares was c. 5,500. Juan Bautista Plumey's Hacienda La Esperanza was the only property labeled as an hacienda in oflcial documents. He had 69 cuerdas planted in coffee worked by 33 slaves. AGPR-FML, PB 42 ‘Censo de almas y estadística, 1846’; and PB 22 ‘Pueblo de Lares, año de 1846. Cuaderno de la riqueza agrícola de dicho pueblo formado por la junta de visita del mismo para el reparto del subsidio.’

19 In Lares in 1846 there were 450 agregado families (2,395 total population) and 408 landowning families (2,691 total population). Of the agregados 379 (84.2%) enjoyed land usufruct rights. Over 90% of the agregado plots were under 5 cuerdas in size. See AGPR-FML, PB 42 ‘Censo de almas y estadística 1846.’

20 In Barrio Espino of Lares every single agregado reporting land cultivation in 1846 also noted yearly cash wages paid for labor. In most cases the wage was 5 pesos monthly. AGPR-FML, PB 42, ‘Censo de almas y estadística, 1846.’

21 For a contemporary account of problems facing the sugar industry in the 1840s see Darío, Ormaechea, Memoria acerca de la agricultura, el comercio y las rentas internas de la isla de Puerto Rico (Madrid, Imp. de D. C. Rufino, 1847).Google Scholar

22 A circular of 2 September, 1850 described the agregados as follows: ‘…que bajo la denominación de agregados, no hacían otra cosa que vagar a la sombra de un terreno que le entregaban para su cultivo los propietarios del país’. AGPR-FML, PB 49 ‘Pueblo de Lares, 1850. Documentos concernientes al arreglo de jornaleros, arrendatarios, propietarios, mozos de labor asalariado, agregados con sus padres.’

23 Indeed the early 1850s saw a frantic quest for land titles in the municipio of Lares. In 1848 there were 390 titled farms; in 1851 this rose to 576; and in 1854, 632 farms were titled. This occurred without a corresponding population increase. AGPR-FML, PB 22 ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año de 1848. Padrón de tierras de este pueblo perteneciente al presente año.’ PB 22 ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año de 1851. Reparto del derecho de tierra del presente año formado por la Junta de Visita’ and PB 22 ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año de 1854. Derechos de tierra perteneciente a dicho pueblo formado por la Junta Municipal del mismo.’

24 In Lares of 728 men subject to the 1849 law because they had not acquired legally titled farms, 69.8% became arrendatarios by September 1850. The remainder became jornaleros. AGPR-FM, PB 49 ‘Pueblo de Lares, 1850. Documentos concernientes al arreglo de jornaleros, arrendatarios, propietarios, mozos de labor asalariado, agregados con sus padres…’ and ‘Estado formado con arreglo a la circular del superior gobierno no. 99 de 2 de septiembre corrte. con expreción….’ It is clear that some of these arrendatarios were relatives of their ‘landlords’; sons, nephews, cousins or other relations, who were ‘rented’ land simply to provide them with the legal means to avoid being classified as jornaleros. However, it must be noted that every large landowner cultivating coffee in Lares, contracted numerous arrendatarios as the core of their labor force in the early 1850s.

25 The 1846 census of agregados in Lares revealed that over 90% of all agregados occupied plots 5 cuerdas or less in extension. In 1850, of 440 renters, only 24.8% rented plots 5 cuerdas or smaller, while 62.5 % rented plots between 6 and 10 cuerdas in size. For 1846 see AGPR-FML, PB 42 ‘Censo de almas y estadística, 1846.’ For rental contracts in 1850 see AGPR-FPN, Box 1431, Lares, 1850, otros funcionarios, arrendamientos.

26 In these contracts it was common to find the commercial farmers, usually coffee planters, specifying small details. Fences had to be constructed, specific crops had to be planted, or animals had to be cared for. See AGPR-FPN, box 1457, San, Sebastián, 1855, Genaro López, fos. 251–252, for an example of this.Google Scholar

27 AGPR-FPN, box 1431, Lares, , 1850, otros funcionarios, fos. 39–44.Google Scholar

28 The increase in acreage rented in the 1850s is indicated by the following data. In 1846 land occupied by Lares agregados totaled 1,257 cuerdas. In 1850, 3,705 cuerdas were rented; and in 1852 rented acreage increased to 4,184 cuerdas. For 1846 see AGPR-FML, PB 42 ‘Censo de almas y estadística.’ For 1850 see AGPR-FPN, box 1431, Lares, , 1850, otros funcionarios, arrendamientos. For 1852 see AGPR-FML, PB 26, ‘Relación de los arrendatarios y mozos de labor que existen en dicho pueblo, 5 de agosto de 1852.’Google Scholar

29 In 1852 there were only 52 jornaleros and 365 arrendatarios in Lares. AGPR-FML, PB 26, ‘Relación de los arrendatarios y mozos de labor que existen en dicho pueblo, 5 de agosto de 1852.’

30 AGPR-FML, PB 3 ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año de 1855 Relación de los frutos menores que se han sembrado y cosechado en el presente año….’ and ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año de 1865. Relación por barrios del número de cuerdas cultivadas de frutos menores en el presente año.’

31 AGPR-RSGPR, Comisión de estadística, Box 303; AGPR-FML, PB 39 ‘Censo de población en 31 de diciembre de 1868.’

32 In 1870 there were 655 propietarios, 967 peones, 2,120 jornaleros, and only 56 arrendatrios. Those labeled peones were analogous to agregados, full time residents on titled properties. For 1865 see AGPR-FML, PB 39 ‘Padrón general de jornaleros.’ For 1870 see AGPR-FML, PB 18, Censo de Población 1870.’

33 There are many examples of this. In February 1866, for example, one José del Río sued Rosa Vega for a debt of 48 pesos. She offered her son to Río for 64 weeks of labor at 0.75 pesos weekly to pay this off. AGPR-FML, PB 4, Juicios Verbales, Josée del Río contra Rosa Vega, 19 Feb., 1866. Also see AGPR-FPN, box 1425, Lares, , Evaristo, Véliz, 1867, fo. 58, where Gregorio Cardona filed suit against José Antonio Yrizarri for a debt of 110.40 pesos. Yrizarri's two sons Eulogio and Isidro were ‘given’ to Cardona to work at the rate of 8.50 and 6.00 pesos monthly until the debt was paid in full.Google Scholar

34 AGPR-FML, PB 42, ‘Censo de almas y estadística, 1846.’ PB 18, ‘Censo de Población 1870.’

35 For the municipality of Lares there are no precise statistical data on the spread of coffee in the 1870s and 1880s although local authorities noted its rapid proliferation. See AGPR-FML, PB 44, Actas, del Ayuntamiento, 1879, 27 dc julio del 1879, fo. 22. Commenting on the growth of coffee cultivation in Lares and through the cordillera central in the 1870s, an anonymous member of the Ayuntamiento remarked: ‘A consecuencia de los altos precios que obtuvo durante algun tiempo…la producción del café ha aumentado mucho no solo en las comarcas de antiguo lo cultivaba, sino que Se ha extendido a regiones en las cuales era desconocidas….’ Later speaking of the 1870s he mentioned ‘ci gran aumento en el cultivo’.Google Scholar

36 For example, in 1859 one Lares coffee hacendado, Toribio Santiago, reported 40 cuerdas sown in coffee and 20 workers needed throughout the year. At harvest time, however, 40 laborers were needed. Centro de Investigaciones Históricos, Universidad de Puerto Rico, El proceso abolicionista en Puerto Rico: Documentos para su estudio. Volumen 1. La institución de la esclavitud y su crisis, 1823–1873 (San Juan, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 1974), p. 37.Google Scholar

37 ‘During the harvest the families living on the coffee farms are not enough; the hands in the municipalities are not enough; and families from the coast must be imported. The shortage of labor forces daily wage rates upward… Since no other crop of any importance exists, everything depends on the coffee harvest. When the season arrives (harvest) everyone has work–men, women and children….’ AGPR-FML, PB 44 Actas del Ayuntamiento, 1879, 27 de, julio de 1879, fo. 22.Google Scholar

38 AGPR-FML, PB 18, ‘Contratos de Libertos, 1873.’ Unfortunately, documentation on non-liberto wage labor is not available. See contrato 222 for an example of the 9 pesos/month rate.

39 AGPR-FML, PB 1, Ayuntamiento de Lares, ‘Año económico de 1885 a 86. Expediente de repartimiento general para el próximo año económico de 1886 a 87.’

40 ‘All those who have lived in the center of the island know very well that when the harvest arrives, the landowners always need to advance some money to the families arriving to pick coffee, in order to provide them with some clothing so that they can present themselves in public.’ AGPR-FML, PB 44, Actas del Ayuntamiento, 1879, 27 de julio, de 1879, fo. 22.Google Scholar

41 Don José ‘Pepe’ Ramis, a Mallorcan immigrant from Adjuntas, described the process of labor migration in an interview of a 2 Dec., 1977. Even during the early 20th century, when sugar's expansion and coffee's decline shifted permanent migration patterns from the highlands to the coast, there was still widespread seasonal migration to the coffee zones at harvest time. The reasons had changed however. The interior suffered from a great demographic decline due to migration to the coastal areas of sugar production after 1900.

42 The proliferation of jornaleros at the expense of other landless categories is also supported by evidence from Yauco. This is indicated in the following table showing Yanco landless categories, 1860 and 1879: Category 1860 1879 Propietarios 1,091 919 Peones 1,096 1,780 Jornaleros 609 3,165 Arrendatarios 0 300 Esclavos 400 0 See AGPR-Fondo Municipal de Yauco (hereafter FMY) PB 5, 1860–69, ‘Censo de Población 1860’, and PB 46, 1870–9, ‘Pueblo de Yauco. Antecedentes relativos al censo de almas en este término municipal.’ The ratio of laborers without usufruct rights (jornaleros) to those with access to land (peones and arrendatarios) shifted from 2:3 to 3:2 between 1860 and 1879.

43 AGPR-FML, PB 18 ‘Censo de población, 1870.’ PB 36 ‘Censo general de habitantes, Barrio Río Prieto, 1878.’ PB 37 ‘Censo de población, Lares, Barrio Río Prieto, 1898, Barrio Latorre, 1898.’

44 AGPR-FML, PB 37, ‘Censo de población, Lares, , Barrio, Río Prieto, 1898.’Google Scholar

45 There are no disaggregated data on crop distribution in the Lares municipal archive between 1865 and 1897. However, in 1885 there were a total of 4,568 cuerdas planted in all crops. By 1897 this had more than doubled to 10,665 cuerdas and almost 80% of all cultivated land was planted in coffee. Most of this acreage was sown in the 1880s and 1890s. For 1865 see AGPR-FML, PB 39 ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año de 1865. Relación por barrio del número de cuerdas cultivadas de frutos menores en el presente año en el Partido.’ For 1885 see PB 1, ‘Pueblo de Lares. Año económico de 1885 a 86. Padrón general de Ia riqueza agrícola.’ For 1897 see PB 35 ‘Ayuntamiento de Lares. Ejercicio de 1897 a 98. Expediente instruido para proceder…a la riqueza territorial de este pueblo….’

46 Between 1885 and 1898 the mean price for land sold in Lares increased from 72.83 to 123.21 pesos/cuerda. See AGPR-FPN, San, Sebastian y Lares, ventas de terreno, 1885 and 1898.Google Scholar

47 Market prices for Puerto Rican coffee averaged 14.62 pesos/quintal in 1885; 27.50 pesos/quintal in 1890; and 36.50 pesos/quintal in 1895. See LCCH, Diarios, 1885–1898.

48 ‘… a settlement colonized for labor, where a large rural population is dispersed at the perimeters, acquiring life with the work that is constantly carried out…’. Ramón, Morel Campos, El Porvenir de Utuado (Ponce, Imprenta El Vapor, 1897), p. 82.Google Scholar

49 Ledesma Hermanos of Utuado, for example, owned a 225 cuerda coffee hacienda in Barrio Mameyes Arriba where 20 full-time peones resided year round. However, 100 were needed at harvest time. See Morel, Campos, El Porvenir de Utuado, pp. 82, 122.Google Scholar

50 See the descriptions of the large haciendas in Utuado provided by Morel Campos, El porvenir de Utuado, and the photographs between pages 120 and 121 in the 1899 census of Puerto Rico. United States War Department, Report on the Census of Porto Rico, 1899 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1900).Google Scholar

51 See the Revista de Agricultura, Industria, y Comercio, no, 83, 25;Google Scholarde, agosto de 1891, p. 266. Women workers are described as follows:‘…las mujeres tal vez cojan más, tienen como dicen en el país, la mano mas liviana…’.Google Scholar

52 ‘Labor… is subject to the laws of supply and demand… if daily wages are not raised at harvest time, the coffee producing centers will be short of hands and the beans could not be collected.’ Fernando, López Tuero, Isla de Puerto Rico: Estudios de economía rural (Puerto Rico, Imprenta del Boletín Mercantil, 1893).Google Scholar

53 AGPR-Libro de cuentas de la Hacienda Pietri, 1898–1912, pp. 101, 103.