On this excursion you will get to know the background of the history of slavery in the Dominican Republic. Because people who were brought from Africa as slaves from 1503/1505 onwards, especially for work in the sugar factories on the island of Hispaniola, play an important role in the history of the country.
After breakfast you will be picked up at your hotel and begin your tour in the Barrio Santa Barbara. This was the site of the slave market, the historic transshipment point for people from Africa brought to the island for slave labor. Today, the streetscape is dominated by murals that refer to the historical and cultural aspects of slavery such as religious syncretism. After a subsequent visit to the Rum Museum, where you will learn about the tools that slaves used to do their work in the sugar factories, the tour will take you to the historic pillory La Picota, where rebellious slaves were publicly flogged. After the historic city tour, you will leave Santo Domingo heading west. Along the way, you will pass historic sites such as La Puerta de Lemba, one of the city gates where the head of Sebastian Lemba, a rebellious slave leader now revered as a national hero, was once displayed after being beheaded by Spanish colonial rulers. After leaving Santo Domingo, you will visit the ruins of the Ingenio Boca de Nigua sugar factory. The well-preserved structures of the factory will give you an idea of the historical sugar and rum production solely by the power of slaves and oxen. You’ll also learn how the tools you learned about earlier at the Rum Museum were used. The site is also of particular historical interest, as it was here in 1521 that the first uprising of slaves in the New World took place. Afterwards, you will drive to the ruins of the first hydroelectric sugar factory, Ingenio Diego Caballero.
On the way back to stop at a restaurant best known for its specialty pastel en hoja, dough stuffed with meat and steamed in a banana leaf, but also offers other Dominican delicacies.
After lunch on the way back to Santo Domingo, stop at a third historic sugar factory, Ingenio de Engombe, notable for the well-preserved remains of the factory owner’s mansion. Afterwards return to your hotel.