Schoelcher and the Jibaro

  

One of the interesting contrasts in the French perception of the jibaro of Puerto Rican can be found in the works of Victor Schoelcher and Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac. Approaching the Caribbean from opposed perspectives on race and slavery, both shared a view of the jibaro as a biological and cultural mestizo with significant indigenous features. However, in the case of Schoelcher, the jibaro's bare subsistence and meager lifestyle demonstrated an example of non-black Caribbean populations languishing economically, socially and politically. In fact, Schoelcher actually visited peasant bohios and collected goods produced by them, meaning he was able to gather more information. Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac, on the other hand, wrote more impressionistically of Puerto Rico's jibaros. To him, they were mestizos who shared the general disdain of blacks found among the red-skinned races. In addition, they were excellent laborers and gladly hunted runaway slaves in the colony. The account of Schoelcher, undoubtedly based on more research and personal experiences with the free peasantry of Puerto Rico, was more perceptive about the nuances of race among the jibaros. After all, included among the jibaro were the pardos who shared a similar culture, suggesting that the free peasantry of partial Amerindian ancestry was very much one that also included people of African origins. Overall, Schoelcher, the abolitionist, probably saw in the racially mixed free population of Puerto Rico an example of non-black Antillean indolence. Indeed, Schoelcher apparently favored attempts by the Spanish governors of the island to coerce the jibaro to work, something similar to post-emancipation apprenticeship programs implemented elsewhere in the Caribbean. Nonetheless, the diametrically opposed interpretations of the jibaro from these two French authors, both writing in the 1840s, illustrates how the personal racial biases of the writer can lead to drastically different conclusions.