historian Adalberto Lopez-in
Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans: Studies in History and Society
(Wiley, 1974), edited Lopez and James Petras-provide a useful overview.
Lopez notes that as a result of war- fare with the Spaniards and of smallpox epidemics, the island's population declined drastically from an estimated 30,000 after the Spanish arrived to a few thousand by 1520. Labor shortages led to the im- portation of black African slaves.
Life for the slaves in Puerto Rico was "short, nasty...