Industry
Hacienda Lealtad in barrio La Torre, Lares, Puerto Rico, began in 1830 as a large coffee estate founded by French immigrant Juan Bautista Plumey, who arrived with enslaved people. It became the largest coffee plantation in Lares and was notable for its modern water-powered machinery, including an early system that generated electricity for processing. Surviving features include the owner’s house, drying areas, mill, former slave quarters, and a stone cell used to imprison slaves. Its history reflects slavery, labor systems, coffee’s rise and decline after 1898, and its twenty-first-century restoration by Edwin Soto as a working hotel, museum, and coffee enterprise.
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