Puerto Rico's Padrones, 1779-1802

The series consists of 23 annual censuses spanning the years 1779 to 1802, a collection that for its scope and continuity is unique among serial sources of Spanish American colonial history. The padrones were born of a 1776 Royal Order requesting viceroys and executives of Capitanías Generales and Gobernaciones, such as Puerto Rico, to prepare reports on population, broken down by social status, race, and sex. The focus was the civilian population and, therefore, excludes the regular army troops. The series reports the population of Whites, Indians, free Mulattoes, free Blacks, Mulatto slaves and Black slaves for each of 30 partidos in all 23 years (producing a total of 690 observations). Each socio-racial group was subdivided by sex and an ambiguous "age" criterion, which we have interpreted as the difference between dependent (or minor) status and mayoría de edad (adulthood or full age, which in the Spanish American context was 25 years of age). For each group, there are four subdivisions: adult males, adult females, young males, and young females.