Monument to the Abolition of Slavery, Slavery memorial in Barrio Cuarto, Ponce, Puerto Rico.
The Monument to the Abolition of Slavery is a 100-foot marble obelisk with a metal tip and features a statue of a freed person at its base. The memorial stands in Parque de la Abolición at the corner of Marina and Calle Salud in Ponce.
The memorial was inaugurated in 1956 under Mayor Andrés Grillasca Salas. It marks when slavery ended in Puerto Rico in 1873.
The statue shows a freed person with broken chains that represent the end of slavery. The image speaks to visitors about liberation and human dignity in a direct way.
The park is open daily and easy to reach on foot since it sits at a street corner in downtown Ponce. Visitors should allow time to read the inscriptions and examine the sculpture closely.
The memorial was among the first in the Caribbean to address this history directly through both architecture and sculpture. Its location in a public park makes it a regular part of the city landscape that locals pass by.
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