- produced by Hana Georg
- in
The Spanish Crown finally abolished slavery in Puerto Rico. Somehow it made sense to them to compensate slave owners with money and require enslaved peoples to work for 3 more years. Unfortunately freedom was short-lived and Puerto Rico became U.S. territory after the Spanish-American war of 1898. Political participation by indigenous peoples was restricted, and after a 1917 act making every Puerto Rican a citizen of the United States, many Puerto Ricans were drafted into the armed forces where they endured the severe discrimination that was rampant in the US.