Toward a history of slavery in small places: Agrarian diversity, demographic expansion, and economic stability in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, 1812–1838

Abstract

This study uses census data from 1812 to 1838 to examine the trafficking of slaves to and from early 19th-century Fajardo, a small town in northeastern Puerto Rico. Findings suggest that Fajardo served as a “feeder town” that enabled local slave traders and slave owners to engage in internal slave traffic to larger nearby towns. Factors such as sugar production limitations and immigrant settlement fostered slave demographics in Farjado that enabled the town to serve as a central municipality in the internal slave traffic to larger municipalities. Our results inform current literature on the African slave trade by illustrating intra-area nuances and contrasts between slavery in Puerto Rico and larger international slaveholding polities.