A woman of endurance : a novel / Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa.

A groundbreaking historical novel from a heralded author that explores the seldom discussed Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade. At a time when importing humans from Africa had been prohibited by the Spanish Crown, Pola and other slave women provide their master with babies who are immediately taken away and sold on the auction block. Her serial rapes by a number of men are routine and often provided entertainment for the master and his friends. Understandably she grows into an angry, distrustful and combative woman who lives life in survival mode at all times. After repeated attempts at escape and having been beaten almost to death, she is sent to a new plantation owner as payment of a gambling debt. Pola's life in the second plantation is much more bearable than her past experience. In this new hacienda, she is taken in by a supportive group of other enslaved black women. Within the confines of this enslaved community, she encounters a wide variety of people and situations that are new to her. Cautious and still hostile, she begins to find her way this new environment and the people in it, leading to conflicting feelings and much soul-searching. Among the people she meets is a Chachita, a young woman who becomes a surrogate daughter to her, and Simón, a man who, amazingly, takes nothing from her and offers her a hand in friendship. Her physical and emotional wounds begin to heal as she finds more freedom of movement and emotional support than she has known since captivity. Ultimately, she begins to reconcile her brutal past with a more nurturing present in which she allows herself to trust and love again.