Publisher's Synopsis
This work opens up a space that has been touched lightly by our historiography: the participation of the free Black men and women in the Puerto Rican national identity. This work exalts the author and breaks myths, opening up pathways to the comprehension of the Puerto Rican past.In Education, there were many Black male and female teachers of this country who taught white children as well as black children; some Black males and females were journalists, writers, and playwrights. The contribution to music and to the fine arts was great, not only of African rhythms or of its Puerto Rican derivatives but also to those rhythms that came from Europe, that emerged, like "la danza", from an assimilation of sounds particular to the Puerto Rican ear.In the field of agricultural, domestic, and urban labors, their contribution was greater than that of the slaves, less numerous in the 1860-70 decade. Also there were landowners and professionals and their social levels passed on from the Mulatto or Black mother of Román Baldorioty de Castro, who washed clothes so her son could go to school, to the ancestors of Ramón Emeterio Betances who could send him to study to Paris. The free Black men and women were workers, businessmen, merchants and road sellers, dockers and farmers.The Puerto Rican historiography has followed the established model in other Caribbean countries, where slavery was essential to the work and economic development. In those works, a great emphasis is given on the slaves of the Island who became the center of all academic and educational attention creating a slavery mythology in a country where the work of María González eliminates it.
