San Juan Abolicionista:

“El Majesty” (1859), urban slavery, and freedom in Old San Juan

UNESCO declared the city of Old San Juan a World Heritage Site in 1983. This historic place is characterized by its forts, houses, balconies, and cobblestoned streets, all commonly described with the adjective “colonial.” However, colonialism is more than an architectural fetish; it is a lived reality of racialized violence. Join us to explore another side of Old San Juan—one that detours away from its pantheon of founding fathers and Creole elites, and instead focuses on the Black People who made San Juan their home.

San Juan Abolicionista: “El Majesty” (1859), urban slavery, and freedom in Old San Juan is a guided tour through the streets of Old San Juan that questions 19th-century abolitionist discourse and proposes alternative ways of understanding freedom. We begin with a brief historical introduction to the economic and legal reasons that enabled the enslavement of millions of people. We explore the particularities of urban slavery in Old San Juan along with the communities of free Black People that emerged on the margins of walled city. 

We then analyze the case of the Brick-Barca Majesty, the last known enslavement vessel to arrive in Puerto Rico in 1859. The Majesty was captured, and the 456 Congolese people who survived the journey were declared free and emancipated. However, they were subjected to the same capitalist regime of forced labor that characterized the system of slavery. We trace the lives of these individuals to highlight how they were not merely victims, but people who resisted—and continue to resist—the racial violence of the global capitalist system to this day.