Parque de la Abolición (English: Abolition Park) is a city park in Barrio Cuarto, Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was the first park in the Caribbean to commemorate the abolition of slavery.

Venue: Parque de la Abolición
Town: Ponce, US

Parque de la Abolición (English: Abolition Park) is a city park in Barrio Cuarto, Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was the first park in the Caribbean to commemorate the abolition of slavery. It was built in 1874 and renovated in 1956. Slaves were brought to Puerto Rico from Africa, starting in the early 16th century and lasting through the 19th century, to replace the local Indian slaves who had been decimated. The new slaves worked the coffee, sugar cane, and gold mining industries in Puerto Rico. During the 18th century, as gold mining ceased to be one of the major industries in Puerto Rico, slaves worked mostly in coffee plantations and sugar cane fields. By a royal proclamation of Spain slavery was abolished on 22 March 1873. In 1874, a year after the abolition of slavery, a group of citizens built a small park in memory of the historic event. In 1880 Olimpio Otero, Juan Mayoral Barnés, and Román Baldorioty de Castro were instrumental in creating the concept for a park dedicated to the commemorating the abolition of slavery, the only such memorial in the Caribbean. Juan Mayoral Barnés brought the idea for the creation of the park to the Ponce Municipal Assembly on 14 March 1880. It was unanimously approved by the Assembly, ratified by the Central Government, and confirmed by Royal Decree on 1 March 1881. The park was built and opened in the 1890s. It had swing sets for children, a fountain with colorful fish, and a roller coaster. On 6 May 1956, under the administration of Ponce mayor Andrés Grillasca Salas, the roller coaster, swing sets and fish pond were removed, and replaced with the current Concha Acústica amphitheater. The statue of the freed slave was added at the base of the obelisk. The sculpture of the freed slave is a work of Victor Cott. Also in 1956, the park's Concha Acústica opened. The park is located on Avenida Hostos at the fork of Salud Street and Marina Street, immediately north of the 100-foot high Monumento a la abolición de la esclavitud. It sits a