A Look at my 5th Great-Grandmother’s Testament

There was a lot of worry that after Hurricane María, many genealogical places would be closed or have received irreversible damage. Luckily, the AGPR is open and running and even offers visiting hours on Saturday. With a simple email of the information of my ancestors (their names, year they made their testament, and name of the notary) they were able to find two protocolo boxes. Unfortunately, other ancestors’ testaments were not available for viewing – some because their records might have never made it to the AGPR or because they never came before a notary and just made their testament amongst witnesses. Luckily, María de la Cruz Román, my 5th great-grandmother, did leave behind a will in front of a notary and they were able to find the box. So I headed to the archive to find out more about her life and the worldly possessions of my 5th great-grandmother.

Going into this search, I knew that Bernardina Sepúlveda Román, my 4th great-grandmother, had owned slaves right before their freedom in 1873 but I wasn’t sure if they were inherited from María de la Cruz Román (her mother) or purchased separately. Taking a look at my 5th great grandmother’s testament provided me with some more clues and information. 

Getting to see the testament was very cool, the documents were very old and fragile but in fairly good shape and very easy to read. I was lucky the notary had an index of all of his transactions of the range of years I was searching, such as: transferring of power, selling land, testaments, freedom records, etc. I was easily able to find María de la Cruz Román’s record, as well as while sifting through I was also able to find other documents that I’ll focus on in another post. My 5th great-grandmother’s testament was 5 pages long which started with fairly religious jargon about her soul, forgiving her sins, and believing in God and the Trinity, etc, etc. She left behind money to pray for her in the church (30 masses of San Gregorio) and to pay her debt mainly to her son (Juan Lorenzo Sepúlveda) and to a neighbor (Juan Soto, originally from Lares) residing in Adjuntas. In her will she left behind 450 cuerdas (acres) of land which she states has planted coffee, plantain, fruit trees, pastures and “montes” (which depending on how you use it could be wooded area, hills or mountains). She listed having 8 cows (5 with their offspring), 1 bull, 1 calf, 2 horses, 2 mares, 2 cows, and 1 sow. Interestingly enough, she left behind 18 cuerdas of land in Limón, Mayagüez. I find this interesting since she was originally from San Sebastián while her husband was the one from Mayagüez. It is possible that when he passed in 1829, he passed this land onto his wife who then passed it to her son Juan Lorenzo Sepúlveda Román. Unfortunately his testament was made in front of witnesses so it is likely to have never been officially recorded and sent to the AGPR. 

What shocked me, but I expected, was a list of slaves she left behind, which on her will she lists as “siervos” – known as serfs or servants in English. They are given no value, nor age, or relationship between them but only listed by first name. Listed are: (1) Pedro José, (2) Teresa, (3) Severino, (4) Belén, (5) Francisca, (6) Tomasa, (7) Miguel, (8) María del Rosario, (9) Juana Bautista, (10) Petrona, (11) María Antonia, (12) Blasina, and (13) Manuela. In total, 13 slaves are listed in her will. There is nothing in her will about who they are going to, whether they received freedom, or what the plan is after she passes away. She made her will in 1852 and passed two years later in 1854, freedom from slavery didn’t come until 1873. So what happened to these slaves? 

I have only been able to track a few so far (some of those who passed before María de la Cruz’s will, which means they aren’t included in the total 13 at the time of her will) and those that had children which Bernardina Sepúlveda inherited. Before 1852, María de la Cruz would have 7 slaves pass away (so far this is the number I have, which is possible to raise as I continue to search Adjuntas church records). These are those who passed: 

Here, you can see that some of the slaves from María de la Cruz’s will got married and had children within their group. With these deaths it brings the current total to 20 total slaves. 

The next time slaves appear are in the slave registry of 1872, just one year shy of abolition. These appear listed as Bernardina Sepúlveda’s slaves. In total she was 4 slaves: (1) Felipa, daughter of Martín and Petrona; (2) María Tomasa, daughter of Pedro José and Teresa; (3) Juan, son of Gerónimo and Felipa; and (4) Lorenzo, son of Ramón and Felipa. Here we can see some of María de la Cruz’s slaves’ children belonging to Bernardina. This would make me think that Bernardina inherited some of the 13 slaves and they had children which she continued to own up until abolition in 1873. 

My goal is to try and track down what happened to the slaves María de la Cruz Román listed in her will. Did some of them receive freedom? Did they go to her children or were sold to other families? Part of this mystery could be solved with notary records but finding them could be like a needle in a haystack and take much more time in the AGPR that I unfortunately do not have. Interestingly, two slaves left a “deposit” of money to María de la Cruz Román which after her death is said should be paid back to them with 5% annual interest starting the 19 of August 1848. Was this a deposit for freedom? For insurance of freedom for their children? I don’t think it’s the latter since one of them was Pedro José and Bernardina owned one of his daughters. 

With the abolition of slavery being today it’s an interesting day for me. As someone who descends from both slaves and slave owners, it is hard to understand what this day means for me. Interestingly enough, my slave ancestors were freed before 1873 – those that came from the French islands were freed in 1848 and early where my Puerto Rican slave ancestors seemed to have received freedom in the 1700s, for example like my recently discovered Manuel Ruiz, pardo slave ancestor. Overall, it is a great day to celebrate that equality was somewhat given (though as we know not fully) to slaves and at the same time it stings to know that some of my ancestors took part in a dark part of history. Yet, we need to face our past, as Germans put it – Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“struggle to overcome the ‘negatives of’ the past” or “working through the past”), in order to better understand the society we currently live in and the struggles people face each day in order to make a better tomorrow.