Sugar and Slavery in 19th Century Puerto Rico

A map illustrating the most important sugar plantation districts of Puerto Rico in 1828, taken from Francisco Scarano's "Sugar and Slavery in Puerto Rico" which focuses on Ponce in the first half of the 19th century. Scarano's really an economic historian in some respects, and his work is perfectly balanced with Luis Figueroa's research on slavery and the plantation economy in 19th century Guayama, one of the most important areas in the Ponce-Patillas alluvial plain where sugar plantations thrived. Unlike Scarano, Figueroa endeavors to study slave resistance as well race relations in Guayama, while Scarano provides detailed information and statistics regarding exports, immigration (white immigrants from other colonies and Catholic nations of Europe played a large role in the rise of the plantation model in Guayama, Mayaguez, and Ponce in the 19th century), and trade relations. Indeed, Puerto Rico, in the late 1830s (and despite experiencing a rise in sugar monoculture and the slave trade after Cuba) actually exported more sugar to the US market than Cuba, in spite of its much smaller size and slave population.