On this day, March 22, in 1873

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.