Parque de la Abolición (English: Abolition Park) is a city park in Barrio Cuarto,

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

. It was the first park in the Caribbean to commemorate the abolition of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. It was built in 1874 and renovated in 1956.

Background

Slaves were brought to Puerto Rico from Africa, starting in the early 16th century and lasting through the 19th century, to replace the local Indian slaves who had been decimated. The new slaves worked the

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...

, and

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface, ...

industries in Puerto Rico. During the 18th century, as gold mining ceased to be one of the major industries in Puerto Rico, slaves worked mostly in coffee plantations and sugar cane fields. By a royal proclamation of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

slavery was abolished on 22 March 1873.

History

In 1874, a year after the abolition of slavery, a group of citizens built a small park in memory of the historic event. In 1880 Olimpio Otero, Juan Mayoral Barnés, and

Román Baldorioty de Castro Román Baldorioty de Castro (23 February 1822 – 30 September 1889) was Puerto Rican abolitionist and spokesman for the island's right to self-determination. In 1870, he was elected as a deputy in the Cortes Generales, the Spanish parliament, ...

were instrumental in creating the concept for a park dedicated to the commemorating the abolition of slavery, the only such memorial in the Caribbean. Juan Mayoral Barnés brought the idea for the creation of the park to the Ponce Municipal Assembly on 14 March 1880. It was unanimously approved by the Assembly, ratified by the Central Government, and confirmed by Royal Decree on 1 March 1881. The park was built and opened in the 1890s. It had swing sets for children, a fountain with colorful fish, and a roller coaster. On 6 May 1956, under the administration of Ponce mayor Andrés Grillasca Salas, the roller coaster, swing sets and fish pond were removed, and replace with the current Concha Acústica amphitheater. The statue of the freed slave was added at the base of the obelisk. The sculpture of the freed slave is a work of Victor Cott. Also in 1956, the park's Concha Acústica opened.

Location and features

The park is located on Avenida Hostos at the fork of Salud Street and Marina Street, immediately north of the 100-foot high Monumento a la abolición de la esclavitud. It sits across from the Darlington Building, Ponce's first multi-story building, which was completed in 1952. The park features a grassy green area with trees and masonry benches as well as two monuments to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico: a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

depicting a black male slave with broken chains depicting he is a free man, and a 100-foot high

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

, Monumento a la abolición de la esclavitud, which rises just behind the black iron

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

of the freed slave to accentuates and give instance to the occasion. Between the green area of the park and the two monuments is the outdoors acoustic amphitheater known as '' La Concha Acustica'' (English: The Acoustic Shell) which completes the park in its triangular city block. After almost 70 years of use with only minor maintenance, the park was renovated in 1956 by

Francisco Porrata Doria Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

, an architect from Ponce.''Recreacion.''
Oficina de Fomento Turístico. Municipio Autónomo de Ponce. 7 September 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2014.

References

External links

Photo of Parque de la Abolicion (ca. 1906) before the obelisk was built

Parque de la Abolicion in 1910, looking north
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parque de la Abolicion 1870s establishments in Puerto Rico Music venues in Puerto Rico Parks in Ponce, Puerto Rico Tourist attractions in Ponce, Puerto Rico Urban public parks 1874 establishments in the Spanish Empire

Background

History

Location and features

See also

References

Further reading

External links